WhatsApp has introduced new parental controls for teens, allowing parents to control a number of things. Learn which settings parents can control and how secure children's private chats will be.
WhatsApp Parental Controls
Parents will now have more control over their children's accounts on WhatsApp, but their personal chats and calls will remain private. WhatsApp has introduced new parental controls for teens, allowing parents to control who can see their child's profile photo, who can add them to groups, and how to use Channels, Status, and Meta AI. So, let's understand how parental controls will work.
How will parental controls work?
Under the new Parent-Managed Accounts, parents will be able to customize some privacy settings for their Teen accounts, including who can view their profile photo and who can add them to WhatsApp groups.
Parents can also choose which channels their child has access to. They can also decide who their teen can see their status updates from and who can see their own.
What is the most important function of parental controls?
An important part of the new feature is WhatsApp group alerts. Parents can receive notifications when their teen has joined or left a group. They can also be notified if there's a significant change in the number of members in a group they're in. However, this doesn't mean parents will be able to read the group's conversations; they'll only receive information about group activity.
Separate controls will also be available for Meta AI
WhatsApp has also added parental controls for Meta AI. Parents can maintain the standard 13+ experience for teens or choose more restricted content options. Teens will need parental approval to change these settings. A PIN set by the parent will be used for this. If the teen later wants to make a setting less restrictive, they will need the same PIN.
Private chats and calls will not be affected.
WhatsApp's new controls will prevent parents from accessing their teens' private conversations. Personal messages and calls will remain end-to-end encrypted, as before. According to WhatsApp, no one other than the people in the chat can read or listen to these messages or calls. Parents can change these controls later or even turn them off completely.
Feature rolling out gradually.
According to WhatsApp, Parent-Managed Accounts is being rolled out gradually, and the feature may not be available in every region right now. The company hasn't shared any specific timeframes for different countries. Users in India will need to wait for this option to become available while using the latest version of WhatsApp. WhatsApp says this is just the beginning and more controls will be added based on feedback from families.
