WhatsApp is rolling out parent-managed accounts for pre-teens a new feature that lets parents or guardians set up and oversee a child’s WhatsApp experience, limiting it to messaging and calling.
The accounts are designed to give parents meaningful control without reading the child’s messages. End-to-end encryption stays in place, so conversations remain private. What parents get instead is control over the edges: who can reach the child, which groups they join, and what their profile shows to the outside world.
Here’s how to set it up.
Setting up the account
You’ll need both phones on hand — yours and your child’s. Open WhatsApp on each device and follow the on-screen prompts to link the parent account to the child’s account. Once linked, create a parent PIN on your phone. This stops anyone else from changing the child’s account settings without your knowledge.
Managing contacts and groups
From the parent account, you can decide who’s allowed to contact your child either restricting it to known contacts or reviewing incoming requests from unknown numbers. For groups, you choose which ones the child can join. WhatsApp sends a notification whenever the child receives a new group invite, so nothing slips through without your awareness.
Privacy settings
Profile visibility, last seen, and status updates are all configurable from the parent side. The child cannot change these settings independently.
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Keeping it updated
WhatsApp recommends reviewing the settings periodically checking messages from unknown contacts and group memberships and adjusting controls as the child gets older.
Why WhatsApp built this
The company says the feature is part of a broader push to make the app safer for pre-teens. The concerns are familiar ones for any parent: strangers in group chats, unsolicited contact, exposure to people the child doesn’t know offline. These controls give parents visibility into both without turning into surveillance. Messaging stays private between the child and their contacts.
Some families tested beta versions ahead of the wider rollout. The general response, according to WhatsApp, was that the oversight felt reassuring rather than intrusive a balance that’s harder to strike than it sounds.
