Worried about who your teen is talking to on WhatsApp? Messaging platform rolls out parental controls: Details
Earlier this week, Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp announced that it is launching new parental controls for teens. The move comes at a time when Meta is facing intense scrutiny worldwide over the addictive designs of its platforms and the harm they can cause to young people.
In a blog post, WhatsApp wrote, “Today we’re introducing parental controls for teens – a set of flexible, optional tools that parents and teens can set up together to help families choose the WhatsApp experience that’s right for them.”
What should parents and teens know about the latest parental controls?
WhatsApp’s parental controls are optional tools that allow parents to manage certain aspects of their teen’s experience on the messaging platform. With the latest update, parents will now be able to choose the right privacy settings for their teens, including who can see their profile photo or add them to groups. Additionally, if a teen wishes to relax any of those settings, they’ll need their parent’s approval via a parent-set PIN.
With parental controls in place, parents will be able to receive notifications when their teen joins or exits a group, as well as when a group the teen belongs to sees a significant increase in members. They will also be able to control how their teen uses Channels, decide whose Status updates the teen can view, and manage who can see the teen’s own Status.
Additionally, parents can select the Meta AI experience available to their teen, choosing either the default 13+ setting or the more restrictive “Limited Content” option.
The controls can be set up using a single PIN and include alerts to help parents stay informed. Since the needs of each family may differ, the controls are optional, allowing parents to decide how much supervision their teen requires and change or disable the settings whenever they choose. WhatsApp said that even when parental controls are enabled, teens’ personal messages and calls remain protected by end-to-end encryption, meaning only people in the conversation can access them.
More parental controls likely: WhatsApp
In its post, the messaging platform stated that these parental controls are just the beginning, adding that more features will likely be rolled out based on feedback from families. Further, the company said these controls aim to encourage conversations between parents and teens about using WhatsApp safely, while ensuring that personal messages remain private.
Meta is aggressively introducing features to protect children: Here’s why
The Mark Zuckerberg-owned company has been in the middle of several lawsuits over the harm its platforms, such as Instagram and Facebook, have caused to children. Lawmakers in the US and other countries have also pressed Meta, and Instagram in particular, regarding the company’s delay in launching teen safety features. Earlier in August, Meta agreed to pay an $18 billion fine to settle a lawsuit that was brought by 29 states in the US.
Since then, the company has introduced several features aimed at improving child safety across its platforms. According to a TechCrunch report, Meta has rolled out content controls, parental controls for interactions with Meta AI, and pre-teen accounts on WhatsApp. It has also started notifying parents when their children search for self-harm-related content on Instagram.
