WhatsApp brings parental controls for teen chats: How to enable
What's the story
WhatsApp has announced the launch of new parental controls, aimed at giving guardians more oversight over their teens' online activities. The features will let parents manage who their children can interact with on the platform, as well as set content settings for Meta AI chats. The move comes amid growing concerns about online safety and privacy for minors.
Feature details
New settings include restrictions on channel use, status visibility
The new parental controls come with a host of features. Parents can now restrict their teens' use of channels, decide who can view their Status updates, and control group participation.
They can also receive notifications when their child joins or leaves a group, or when its size increases significantly.
All these settings are protected by a PIN set by the parent to ensure teen safety.
Content control
Parents can also customize content settings for Meta AI chats
Along with privacy controls, the new parental controls also let parents customize content settings for Meta AI chats.
They can choose between a default 13+ setting or a stricter 'Limited Content' option that disables private processing-based features like incognito chat and message summaries.
This way, parents can ensure their children are not exposed to inappropriate content on the platform.
Security assurance
End-to-end encryption remains intact amid new features
Despite the introduction of these new parental controls, WhatsApp has assured that messages and calls on the app remain end-to-end encrypted.
This means that no one, not even WhatsApp itself, can see or hear them.
The company has been under pressure to introduce safety features for teens after facing lawsuits over its social media products allegedly harming children.
Setup guide
How to set up parental controls
To set up the new parental controls, parents need to update their kids' WhatsApp app and go to Settings > Parental controls and tap "Continue" to proceed.
After entering their teen's birthday and confirming their age, they can link it with a parent's account by scanning a QR code displayed on the teen's device.
Parents can then create a 6-digit parent PIN for added security.