Madrid.- WhatsApp announced the new accounts managed by parents, which allow them and guardians to configure the messaging application for preteens with new controls to limit their experience to messages and calls.
These accounts, which will be implemented globally in the coming months, include by default «new strict settings», parental controls and options for parents to guide their preteen children (13 years old in the United States) in their first experiences with messaging, reports WhatsApp.
"New controls to limit your experience"
«With the contribution of families and experts, we are implementing the new accounts managed by a father, mother or guardian that allows them to configure WhatsApp for preteens, with new controls to limit their experience on WhatsApp to messages and calls».
They must be accounts created and actively managed by the parents or guardians, and must remain linked to their own WhatsApp account, a messaging application owned by Meta.
Parents will need the phone they bought for their family member and their own device, side by side, to link their accounts.
Decide who can communicate with the account
After setting up the account, the parent, mother, or guardian will be able to control it and decide who can communicate with the account and which groups it can join. In addition, these adults can review message requests from unknown contacts and manage the account's privacy settings.
The new parental controls and settings are protected by a parent PIN on the managed device. Only parents can access and modify privacy settings, allowing them to tailor their family's experience, WhatsApp details.
"All personal conversations remain private and are protected with end-to-end encryption, which means that no one, not even WhatsApp, can see or hear them," the messaging network pointed out.
Available « at the end of this year»
According to WhatsApp, as these types of accounts are gradually implemented over the coming months, it expects to receive feedback from users to continue developing the application and "offer the safest and most private way for families to communicate."
This WhatsApp communication arrives almost two weeks after it was reported that Instagram will begin to notify parents if their child "repeatedly tries to search for terms related to suicide or self-harm" on their social network, as announced by its parent company, Meta.
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This latest measure will be activated for parents in the U.S., the UK, Australia, and Canada who use the social network's parental supervision tools, and will be available in other regions "later this year".
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