WhatsApp Reduces Minimum Age Requirement in Ireland: In Europe and Ireland, WhatsApp has reduced its minimal age requirement from 16 to 13 years.
The social media communicator stated that the modification was being implemented to ensure a uniform minimum age requirement worldwide.
The modifications were implemented on Friday under revised terms and conditions.
It is still recommended that WhatsApp users under the age of 18 have a parent or guardian review the terms of service.
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Consequently, parents are now worried about their kids’ safety when utilizing the program.
Alex Cooney, the CEO of CyberSafeKids, expressed interest in WhatsApp disclosing details about its initiatives to better protect younger users from offensive content and cyberbullying.
“WhatsApp has already got a large percentage of underage users—39% of eight- to 12-year-olds had an account on WhatsApp, according to our latest trends and usage data, despite the minimum age requirement being 16 at the time,” stated Ms. Cooney.
“Regrettably, the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act does not extend its coverage to WhatsApp for harmful content. This is because WhatsApp is classified as a private communications platform, even though it allows for large group conversations and employs end-to-end encryption.”
WhatsApp’s parent company, Meta, said the service provided “the same standardized, high level of protection that is adequate to safeguard all users, including those between the ages of 13 and 16.”
He said: “You can’t search for users you do not know, you need someone’s phone number to connect with them, and the first time you get a message from someone outside of your contacts, we ask if you want to block or report them.”
Concerns arise when users can hide conversations they voluntarily participated in but may not be appropriate.
WhatsApp has strengthened transaction security with several updates in recent months.
In 2021, the option to “view once” was introduced. This option ensures that any image or video watched will be completely erased.
In December, the ‘view once’ option was made public, and it will also be included in the voice notes. In addition, it was announced in November that Chat Lock will be rolled out globally as quickly as possible in the coming months.
Using this feature, a user can create a special password to gain access to specific discussions. Users will also be able to hide private conversations from their list of open chats and make them password-protected.
These tools may allow kids to hide some interactions from their parents, making it more difficult for them to keep an eye on their online safety.
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