WhatsApp: Optional Parental Controls for Teens

What Changed

On 30 September 2026 WhatsApp introduced optional parental controls for teens aged 13 to 17, a set of tools that parents and teens set up together. The parent must be 18 or older and both the parent and the teen must agree to link their accounts; a teen then needs the parent's approval, through a parent-set PIN, to relax a setting. Parents can choose privacy settings such as who can add the teen to groups, are notified when the teen joins or leaves a group, and can adjust how the teen uses Channels, Status and Meta AI, including choosing between the default 13+ Meta AI setting and a stricter Limited Content option. Messages and calls stay end-to-end encrypted, so a parent cannot read, listen to or share them. WhatsApp says the controls are rolling out gradually and may not yet be available in every region, and we have not found WhatsApp confirming that they are available in the UK.

What to Review

• •On your teen's phone, open Settings and look for Parental controls to see whether the option has reached them yet.

Parent Actions