Do you have children? This is how WhatsApp's new parental control will work
It will come into operation in a few months
BarcelonaWhatsApp has announced that it will implement parental controls for minors under 14 years of age who use this application. According to Meta, the owner of WhatsApp, with this step families will be able to configure the application so that their children can only call and send messages through the application. Among the functions they will not be able to access are deleting messages once sent, accessing statuses or artificial intelligence.
This measure comes, on the one hand, amid a wave of countries that have already announced they want to ban social networks for minors under 16 years of age, including Spain, France, Germany or Australia, which was the pioneer and is already applying it. And, on the other hand, a few weeks after Instagram announced that it will notify families if their teenage children search for any word related to suicide or self-harm on the social network. However, alerts will only be sent to first-born children who are enrolled in Instagram's parental supervision program.
When and when will it be implemented?
Restrictions will apply worldwide and will be implemented gradually "in the coming months", according to the company itself. In fact, the instant messaging application is already testing with users to finalize the development of the new restrictions.
How will it work?
Families will be the ones who have to create and manage their child's account. To get it up and running, they will have to link the minor's account with theirs. Linking is very simple: just place the two mobiles next to each other. In addition, parents will have a PIN, which only they will have access to, and where they can carry out control without having to take the minor's mobile.
Who will be able to communicate with our son or daughter?
The family will be able to control and decide who can communicate with their son or daughter and which groups they can join. In addition, they will also be able to decide whether to accept message requests from unknown contacts and manage the account's privacy features. If the son or daughter creates a group or makes any changes, the parents will receive a notification.
Will we be able to read our children's conversations?
No. The messaging app makes it clear that all personal conversations will continue to be "private and protected" by "encryption" that no one will be able to see or hear, in the case of audio messages, not even the messaging app itself. When the child turns 14, parents and firstborns will receive a notification informing them that parental control can be lifted, however, there will be a one-year period for parents to do so.
Will it really fulfill its purpose?
Well, as usually happens in these cases, necessity is the mother of invention. According to César Córcoles, professor of Computer Engineering, Multimedia and Telecommunications at the UOC, it may be that WhatsApp makes a development that is "technically very good and without technological problems", but –he adds–, this does not mean that pre-adolescents do not have all the time in the world to investigate and many incentives to find alternative solutions. "The situation could arise where parents are calm because the boy or girl has an account managed by them, while their children look for alternative ways to communicate outside of this control," points out Córcoles.
In fact, this situation has already happened with the ban on social networks in Australia, where minors have openly explained that they have found a way to circumvent the restriction.