WhatsApp has introduced parental controls for accounts designed for pre-teens, giving parents and guardians more oversight over how younger users use the messaging platform.
The feature has allowed parents to set up WhatsApp on a child’s device while linking it with their own phone to manage the account. Once linked, parents have been able to decide who can contact the account and which groups the child can join.
Parents have also been able to review message requests from unknown contacts and manage the account’s privacy settings. The controls have been secured with a parent PIN on the managed device, ensuring only parents or guardians can access and change these settings.
The company has said that all personal conversations on the platform remain protected with end-to-end encryption, meaning messages and calls cannot be accessed by third parties, including WhatsApp itself.
WhatsApp has also introduced additional tools aimed at giving parents more visibility into group interactions and account activity. The rollout of these parental controls has begun and is expected to expand over the coming months.
