WhatsApp is giving parents more control over how their teenagers use the messaging platform, rolling out a range of privacy and safety controls designed to let families decide how much oversight is appropriate.
The new controls, which WhatsApp is introducing tonight, will allow parents and teens to set up the experience together, with parents able to influence some of the app’s privacy settings and receive additional information about their teenager’s activity.
For the first time, parents will be able to help choose settings including who can see their teen’s profile photo and who can add them to groups.
Should a teenager later want to loosen any of those settings, they will need parental approval through a parent-set PIN.
Parents will also be able to opt in to notifications when their teen joins or leaves a WhatsApp group, or when a group they are part of grows beyond a certain size.
The controls will also extend into some of WhatsApp’s newer features, with parents able to decide which Meta AI experience is appropriate for their family, as well as how their teen can interact with Channels and Status.
Don’t worry, your private conversations are safe
WhatsApp says the controls are not designed to give parents access to the contents of their child’s conversations.
Even when the parental controls are switched on, personal messages and calls remain protected by WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption, meaning neither parents nor WhatsApp can read or hear them.
WhatsApp says parents will be able to adjust or switch off the controls at any time, with the features intended to support conversations between parents and teens rather than act as a monitoring system.
The move comes as major platforms face increasing pressure to give parents more visibility and control over teenagers’ online experiences.
Meta has already built a much broader set of protections around its Teen Accounts across Instagram, Facebook and Messenger.
This year, Meta expanded its 13+ content settings globally across Instagram, Facebook and Messenger, while also introducing additional parental supervision tools and AI-powered age-assurance measures.
TikTok has also developed its own suite of controls through Family Pairing, which allows parents to manage areas including screen time and the content their teenagers see. The platform said in 2025 that teen accounts had more than 50 different features and settings designed specifically for younger users.
WhatsApp’s position in Australia is particularly notable, however, given it sits outside the country’s social media minimum age restrictions. Since December 2025, platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, YouTube and X have been required to take reasonable steps to prevent Australians under 16 from holding accounts.
Standalone messaging services are excluded from the rules, and eSafety currently lists WhatsApp among the services that are not age-restricted. That means Australian teenagers under 16 can continue to use WhatsApp, even as they are prevented from maintaining accounts on a number of major social platforms.
For WhatsApp, the new controls, which are optional, ultimately add another layer of parental oversight without changing the platform’s core privacy promise around private communications.
