A guide for families with key information about ‘WhatsApp’, including the age rating, key terminology, risks and instructions for enabling parental controls and safety settings.
Contents
How WhatsApp works
WhatsApp is a free instant messaging app that lets users:
send messages to individual contacts, or as part of a group
chat with multiple other users
share media
make voice or video calls with their contacts for free
Instead of using SMS, it connects through the internet, which removes texting and calling costs. This is especially helpful for contacting people internationally. WhatsApp accounts are linked to the user’s phone number.
A notable feature of WhatsApp is its end-to-end encryption. This means that only those with the access to the phones of the sender or the recipient can access a message. Nobody else, not even WhatsApp, can see the content of a user’s chat.
Minimum age requirements
Users must be at least 13 years old to use WhatsApp. During sign up, users must input their date of birth. However, there is no age verification, so it’s possible for children under the age of 13 to put in a fake birthday and use the app.
Features
Admin
The person who sets up a group chat. Only admins can add or remove users from a group chat. They can make other members of the group admins as well.
Calls
Users can have audio and video calls with up to 8 people at one time.
Camera
Users can take photos and videos while using the app and send it to contacts. Media can also be shared from the camera roll.
Chat Lock
A locked chat is hidden from the contact list. A password is needed to access the chat, and notifications will not show the content of the messages.
Chats
WhatsApp’s main feature. Chats can be with individuals or groups.
Communities
Users can join multiple group chats into one community, with a shared calendar and announcement space.
Disappearing messages
In the chat settings, users can set messages to disappear 24 hours, 7 days or 90 days after sending.
Location sharing
Users can share their location with a contact, while also either sharing their location at that time, or sharing their live location for up to 8 hours.
Read receipts
Messages have ticks, which will turn blue once the recipient has seen the message. This feature can be turned off.
Screen sharing (Broadcast on iOS)
A user can share their screen with other participants during a video call.
Status
Users can share text, photos, links or video updates with all their contacts. Each status lasts 24 hours.
Video messages
Video messages of up to 60 seconds can be sent between users.
View once
Users can send messages that can only be read once before being deleted. They cannot be screenshotted.
Voice notes
Short recordings of a user’s voice can be sent in place of texts.
What WhatsApp offers
Staying connected
WhatsApp allows young people to stay connected to their friends and family through calls and messages.
Managing risks
Contact with strangers
WhatsApp accounts are linked to the user’s phone number. This means that anyone who has your child’s phone number can find them on WhatsApp. They can then view their profile photo, call them and add them to groups.
You can take steps to reduce the risk of strangers contacting your child.
Change privacy settings
In the WhatsApp privacy settings, you can set it so only your child’s approved contacts can view their profile picture or add them to groups. This will make it harder for strangers to contact them.
Talk about oversharing
Explain to your child that they should not share their live location or send any personal information or photos to people that they do not fully know and trust.
Talk about their digital life
Having frequent casual conversations with your child about their digital life will help you stay informed about what they are doing online. This makes it more likely they’ll mention if a stranger contacts them, giving you the chance to offer guidance on how to handle the situation.
Teach your child to block and report
WhatsApp has block and report features. Showing your child how to use these features can prevent further contact from any strangers who message them.
Bullying
WhatsApp can be used for bullying. Young people could be added to a group chat where they receive unkind messages from the other members. Disappearing messages can make online bullying harder to combat, as it makes it difficult to collect evidence.
There are actions you and your child can take to tackle online bullying.
Block and report
Teach your child how to use the block and report functions on WhatsApp. If someone is sending them unkind comments, advise them to use these features to prevent future contact.
Save evidence
Screenshot messages, videos or images that your child has received so that they can be used as evidence if you need to report bullying to their school or the authorities. This does not work for disappearing messages.
Change privacy settings
In the privacy settings you can control who is allowed to add your child to group chats. Setting this to ‘My Contacts’ prevents unwanted contacts from adding them to groups where they might receive unkind messages.
Encourage conversation
Remind your child that they can always tell you if someone or something is worrying them online.
Persuasive design
WhatsApp features like ‘Read receipts’ and ‘Last seen’ encourage users to spend more time on the app. Young people might feel pressure to reply quickly to friends if they know others can see they’ve been online.
You can ease the pressure to use WhatsApp with the following steps.
Adjust settings
In the privacy settings of WhatsApp, you can disable the ‘Read receipts’ and ‘Last seen’ features. Doing so means you can’t see when other users were last online either. Notifications can also be disabled to prevent young people from being drawn back into the app repeatedly.
Encourage boundaries
Explain to your child that these features are designed to keep them on the app and that their friends should not expect them to always respond immediately. This can help them feel less pressure to always be available on WhatsApp.
End to end encryption
End-to-end encryption means messages sent on WhatsApp are more secure. However, this can give young people a false sense of security when sharing on WhatsApp. Ensure your child understands that screenshots can be taken and messages can be forwarded.
Settings to protect your child
While WhatsApp does not have dedicated parental controls, there are a range of settings that can be adjusted to make using the app a safer experience.
Adjust privacy settings
In the privacy settings, users can edit who they share their online status, profile photo and bio with. You can choose between ‘everyone’ seeing this information or ‘nobody’ seeing it. Live location can also be turned off to protect your child’s privacy.
Change who can view information
Open WhatsApp and click the 3 vertical dots in the top right corner.
Select ‘Settings’ at the bottom of the dropdown menu.
Select ‘Privacy’.
Go through the features and for each option choose from:
Everyone
My contacts
My contacts except...
Nobody
Disable location settings
Open your device’s settings and select ‘Apps’.
Select ‘WhatsApp’, then ‘Permissions’.
Select ‘Location’.
You can now choose from:
Allow only while using the app
Ask every time
Don't allow
Note: Steps to access location settings may vary depending on the device your child uses but will be similar to these settings.
Explore blocking and reporting tools
Teach your child how to use WhatsApp’s blocking and reporting tools to protect themselves from harmful contact. While showing them how to use these features, you can also talk with them about when they should use them.
Block or report harmful contacts
Click on the profile picture of the user you wish to block or report.
On the pop-up, select the information logo on the right.
Go to the bottom of the page and select ‘Block’ to stop them from contacting your child or ‘Report’ to report them for breaking WhatsApp’s rules.
Turn off notifications
WhatsApp’s design can cause young people to spend more time on their phone, as they feel pressure to respond to messages quickly. Switching off notifications can help, as your child will not be alerted to new messages and will be less likely to get distracted from schoolwork or sleep.
To do this:
open WhatsApp and click the 3 vertical dots in the top right corner
select ‘Settings’ at the bottom of the dropdown menu
select ‘Notifications’
go through each option and toggle them off to disable notifications