WhatsApp has announced new parental controls that will let families place additional restrictions on teen accounts without giving parents access to private messages or calls.
The optional controls cover privacy settings, groups, Channels, Status and Meta AI. Parents and teens set them up together using a parent-controlled PIN. Parents will be able to decide settings such as who can see a teen’s profile photo or add them to groups. If the teen later wants to loosen a restricted setting, they will need approval through the PIN.
WhatsApp is also adding activity notifications around groups. Parents can be alerted when their teen joins or leaves a group, as well as when a group the teen belongs to grows significantly in size. The controls do not give parents access to the group’s conversations.
Families will also be able to set limits around Channels and Status, including which Status updates a teen can see and who can view their own updates.
The controls extend to Meta AI inside WhatsApp. Parents can choose between WhatsApp’s default experience for users aged 13 and older and a stricter option called “Limited Content,” though there weren’t extensive details in its announcement about exactly how the more restrictive mode changes responses.
The new tools are designed as supervision controls rather than parental monitoring of conversations. WhatsApp says personal messages and calls remain protected by end-to-end encryption even when parental controls are enabled, meaning parents cannot use the feature to read or listen to them. Parents can adjust the restrictions or switch them off, and WhatsApp says use of the controls is optional. This current release is part of a broader set of family controls, suggesting additional options could arrive later.
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