WhatsApp has announced new parental control features designed to give guardians oversight of their teenagers’ account activity on the messaging platform. The tools will enable parents to receive notifications when their child joins or leaves group conversations and to configure privacy settings on the teen’s account. However, the company emphasized that parents will not gain access to the actual content of messages or calls, which will remain protected by the platform’s end-to-end encryption.
The parental controls will be entirely optional, allowing teenagers and their guardians to choose whether to activate the features. Parents can establish a PIN code to manage the controls, and teens will need to enter this code if they wish to disable them. The settings are intended to be simple to configure and can be adjusted or turned off at any time by the parent. Additional privacy options include the ability to determine who can view a child’s profile photo, which contacts can add the teen to group chats, and how the teenager accesses Channels, a feature that allows organizations and public figures to distribute content. Parents will also be able to select between standard settings or a more restrictive option for Meta AI, the platform’s built-in artificial intelligence assistant.
The move reflects broader industry pressure on technology companies to implement child safety measures. Social media analyst Matt Navarra characterized the optional nature of the controls as a potential weakness, noting that the approach appears advantageous for Meta, WhatsApp’s parent company, as it distributes responsibility between the company, parents, and teens rather than relying solely on corporate age verification systems. The announcement comes amid increased regulatory scrutiny, with governments pursuing legislation to strengthen protections for young users. WhatsApp currently serves users aged 13 and older, though age requirements vary by country. The platform is excluded from a government plan announced in June to restrict under-16s from social media platforms, as regulators classify it as a messaging service rather than social media.
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