A guide for families with key information about ‘WhatsApp’, including the age rating, key terminology, risks and instructions for enabling parental controls and safety settings.
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WhatsApp is a free instant messaging app with up to 2 billion active monthly users worldwide. Using an internet connection, the app allows users to send messages to contacts added to their WhatsApp account either individually or in group chats. Users must verify their account with a standard mobile phone number to start using the app. There are no parental controls available through the app, but there are a range of privacy settings that users can change to help control who they contact and what information is shared.
WhatsApp now sits alongside Instagram, Facebook and Messenger under the parent company Meta. Meta replaces Facebook as the leading company/brand in this group, and the Meta branding is likely to become increasingly visible on all of these apps.
Official age rating
The minimum age restriction for WhatsApp users is 13, however it does not have any rigorous age verification methods.
WhatsApp is rated 12+ on the Apple App Store, and ‘E’ for ‘Everyone’ on Google Play.
Find out more about age ratings in our ‘A parent and carer’s guide to age ratings of apps and games’.
How children and young people use the app
WhatsApp is a messaging app for those looking for convenience as well as enhanced privacy and security. It is especially convenient for users to connect with friends as it syncs to your phone contacts and connects you to their WhatsApp profiles. The app is incredibly user friendly and the ability to set up individual and group chats is appealing for teens.
WhatsApp groups are extremely popular with young people, especially within school communities for year groups, classes and individual friendship groups. However, some young people feel that lots of bullying occurs on the platform within larger group chats, with participants sharing personal content and screen shots of other conversations.
“It’s easy to use and everyone uses it. I like to post my status to share with all my friends.”, child, aged 13.
Key features and terminology
Potential risks
Content
Like other messaging apps, a lot of personal stories, messages and pictures are shared by users on WhatsApp, these are not moderated. Users can also quickly send 60-second video messages with the ease of sending a voice message. Like text messages, the content in a video message is unmoderated which means your child may be exposed to inappropriate content depending on who sends a video message.
The best way to manage the content your child is exposed to is to ensure they are only connecting with people they know, rather than strangers. Ensure the privacy settings have been set to ‘My contacts only’, rather than ‘Everyone’. It is also possible your child may stumble across inappropriate content in the form of bad language or mature content in their messages. By restricting who your child can access on the platform, your child is less likely to experience language or behaviour that is not suitable for their age. However, it should be acknowledged that your child may still be exposed to inappropriate content by their known contacts. Like text and video messages, screen sharing may also be used to expose children and young people to inappropriate content that is present on the sharer’s device.
Connecting with others
As WhatsApp has an age restriction of 13, it does not include any real parental control settings. Like many other social media apps, some children sign up to WhatsApp when they are under the suggested age limit. This is a risk as WhatsApp defaults to ‘Everyone’ on many of its privacy features, which means all users on the platform can view personal information, chat and share images without any filters in place. Speak to your child about the risks of connecting with strangers and explain the importance of not sharing any personal or identifiable information on their profile or within chats. Remind them to tell you if they have been asked more personal questions or to chat privately in a way that makes them feel uncomfortable. Changing the privacy settings to sharing only with ‘My contacts’ is recommended. It is recommended that younger users should also change their group privacy settings to ‘My contacts’, to avoid unknown contacts from adding them to group chats.
Users should be cautious about being added to groups or adding people they do not personally know to groups. The ‘Communities’ feature on WhatsApp allows users to combine groups they are an admin of, to be under a single umbrella. This could result in groups that children are involved with being added to communities that share inappropriate content. It is important that you express an active interest with your child about the groups they are in or who they add and ensure that your child knows they can speak to you about who they talk to on WhatsApp.
It is possible that WhatsApp’s ‘Chat Lock’ or ‘Secret code’ feature could be used by a contact your child knows to share inappropriate content or potentially engage in online grooming through a means that prevents parents or anyone with access to the child’s phone from discovering the conversation. If your child is using a chat lock, or you feel they may be using a ‘secret code’, you should speak with your child. Explain why you may want to check in on who they are chatting with for their own safety, rather than to invade their privacy.
Users should also be aware of the potential of online bullying to take place within WhatsApp groups. Users should note that the ‘Polls’ feature could be used to bully other users. Polls are user-generated, meaning users write in their own questions and answers. This could result in polls that ask a question about a user in the group chat, and only allow users to select a mean response option. As this can be confusing or distressing to your child, it is recommended that you ensure your child knows they can speak to you about what they see on WhatsApp and know the importance of blocking and reporting anyone that causes them distress.
Users may find location sharing useful for a range of functions, such as letting their friends or family know where they are currently located. However, users should be wary of sharing their live location with someone they do not fully know or trust. It is recommended that these settings are disabled for younger users, guidance of which is provided in the ‘Managing privacy’ section of this guide.
User behaviour
If your child has their own WhatsApp account, it is important for you and them to be aware of what they share and the impact this will have on their digital footprint. Ensure your child knows it can be difficult to keep ownership of any content once it has been shared online, as content can easily be copied and reposted without their knowledge and can then become difficult to remove from the internet.
The ‘View once’ feature on WhatsApp could pose a risk to some users. This feature may be conducive of bullying behaviours, with some users feeling they are not culpable if the message can’t be viewed again. Screenshot blocks of ‘View once’ messages are enabled to try and reduce this type of bullying behaviour on platform. Despite these blocks, there have been reports of users who are able to download and save content shared via ‘View Once’. This can be particularly dangerous for your child if they shared something with the confidence that it could only be viewed by the intended audience and not be reshared.
Whilst these safety settings are in place to protect users, you should remind your child to think carefully about the type of content they choose to share.
Design, data and costs
One of the features of WhatsApp is its use of end-to-end encryption. This means that only those with access to the phones of the sender and receiver of a message can access them - not even WhatsApp itself can gain access to messages. Whilst this is an attractive security feature for many adults, it has caused problems for law enforcement when trying to access the message records of victims and suspects involved in child exploitation cases. Changing the privacy settings to sharing only with ‘My Contacts’ is once again recommended.
WhatsApp users should be aware of how ‘Read receipts’ and ‘Last seen’ are designed to keep users on the platform for as long as possible. Now users can select who can see when they are online, which can help to manage the time spent on the platform. Speak to your child about how platforms are designed to be compulsive in this way and encourage them to disable these features to give them a break from constant messaging.
Tips for keeping your child safe
Additional tips
End-to-end encryption can make the app particularly appealing to those who wish to communicate securely. However, this feature could be used by adults who want to develop a relationship with a child to potentially harm or abuse them. Try to make sure your child is only using WhatsApp to communicate with other users that they know and trust.
WhatsApp have a designated safety space, where users can read about the platform’s suggested safety tips.
Meta is introducing AI tools on its platforms, beginning with Instagram and Messenger. Meta has suggested that WhatsApp will also receive Meta AI functionality in the future. If you wish to learn more about AI tools, such as chatbots, please see Hwb’s general guidance.