The WhatsApp application introduces new parental control tools that allow guardians to monitor the people with whom teenagers interact, as well as set content settings for "Meta AI" conversations.
With these new tools, parents can restrict how teenagers use "Channels" and determine who can see their "Status" updates and who can view them, according to a report by TechCrunch.
These features also allow guardians to control who can add teenagers to groups or see their profile pictures. Moreover, parents can choose to receive a notification when the teenager joins a new group or leaves one, or when the number of group members reaches 30, 100, or 250.
All of these settings are protected by a PIN code set by the parents; thus, if the teenager wants to change anything, they will have to obtain approval from their parents. Guardians can also turn off these controls completely.
In addition to these settings, parents can also set content settings for Meta AI; there is now an option to choose the default age category (13 and above) or the more stringent "Limited Content" option, which disables features that rely on specific processing, such as incognito chat and message summarization features.
WhatsApp has stated that despite these new controls, messages and calls through the app remain fully encrypted (end-to-end), and no one can access them.
Meta has faced several lawsuits accusing its social media products of causing harm to children. Lawmakers have pressured Meta—specifically on its Instagram platform—due to the company's delays in launching features aimed at protecting teenagers.
In August, the company agreed to pay a massive fine of $18 billion to settle a lawsuit filed by 29 U.S. states.
The company has taken significant steps to introduce features aimed at protecting children across its applications; it launched content control tools inspired by film rating systems this year, provided parental control tools for interactions with its AI technology (Meta AI), offered dedicated accounts for pre-teens on WhatsApp, and began alerting parents if their children searched for self-harm content on Instagram.