WhatsApp introduces parent-linked accounts designed for pre-teens

On Wednesday, WhatsApp introduced a new category of parent-supervised accounts for users under 13. The company said these accounts will be limited to messaging and calling features only and will not receive any advertisements. Although WhatsApp’s apps are officially rated for ages 13 and older on both the App Store and Google Play, the company acknowledged that many pre-teens already use the platform to stay in touch with their parents, and said the new feature was developed in response to feedback from families.

Meta said that setting up a pre-teen account will require a parent or guardian to have access to both their own device and the child’s device, and that the account must be authenticated via a QR code. During setup, parents can also decide which alerts they want to receive regarding activity on the managed account. By default, parents will be notified whenever the pre-teen adds, blocks, or reports a contact.

In addition to those standard notifications, parents can choose to enable optional activity alerts. These can include updates when the pre-teen changes their name or profile picture, receives a new chat request, joins, creates, or leaves a group, when a group enables disappearing messages, or when a chat or contact is deleted. All of these control settings are protected by a six-digit PIN that parents can create and update on their own device.

“We’ve heard from parents, who have bought mobile phones for their pre-teens, that they want to message them on WhatsApp. Parent-managed accounts are specifically designed to give additional control over settings and communications for this group,” the company said on a Q&A page.

WhatsApp said these managed accounts will not have access to features such as Meta AI, Channels, or Status. They also will not be able to enable disappearing messages for one-on-one chats. At the same time, the company emphasised that all messages and calls on these accounts will remain private and protected by end-to-end encryption.

When pre-teens receive messages from people who are not already in their contacts, they will see a context card providing more information about that request. These cards can show whether the unknown contact shares any groups with the pre-teen and which country that person is from. In addition, users can always choose to silence calls from unknown numbers. By default, WhatsApp also blurs images sent by unknown contacts.

For managed accounts, all incoming chat requests will be placed in a separate folder locked behind the parent’s PIN. Group invitation links will be protected in the same way. Before parents approve a group request, the company will also show them details about the group, including how many members it has and who the group administrator is.

Meta said that as pre-teens grow older, they will receive a notification that can be converted to an account. The company added that it plans to introduce an option allowing parents to postpone the transition by another 12 months.

The company said it is beginning to roll out the feature in select regions and will gradually expand availability over the coming months.

For several years, Meta has been introducing special controls and account protections aimed at teen safety across platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. While WhatsApp is not a social network in the same sense, the app is used by more than 3 billion people worldwide across many age groups, including children. The move also comes at a time when several countries, including Denmark, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom, are moving toward restricting social media access for users below certain ages.