The digital security revolution officially lands in Italy with the introduction of the new parental control system on WhatsAppthe famous instant messaging application owned by the Meta group. This important feature, designed specifically for accounts of adolescents over 13 years oldoffers parents a set of optional and flexible tools for monitor and protect your children’s digital experience.
Adults will be able to directly configure the most delicate privacy settings, deciding for example Who is allowed to view the teen’s profile picture or who can add it within group chats. Any attempt by the child to change these restrictions will require the mandatory approval of the supporting adult the insertion of a secret PIN set during configuration.
Despite the introduction of these new levels of supervision, Meta wanted to firmly reiterate that end-to-end encryption remains fully active and unbreakable. This means that the content of personal messages and the voice of calls made by the teenager will continue to be strictly private. No external observer, nor even the platform itself, will be able to read or listen to private conversations in any way, thus guaranteeing the perfect balance between protecting the safety of minors and respecting their intimate sphere.
Group notifications and advanced control over Meta AI
The new package of parental control tools is not limited to simple privacy management, but introduces a series of alerts and features designed to keep parents constantly informed about their children’s online activities. Adults will receive real-time notifications every time your child decides to join or leave a groupor in the event that a group chat exceeds a certain size growth threshold.
Furthermore, supervision allows you to establish the methods of use of channelsOf monitor visible status updates and to select the most suitable artificial intelligence experience via Meta AI, being able to choose between the standard 13+ configuration and the more restrictive mode called Limited Content.
This innovation is part of a regulatory and social landscape in turmoil, characterized by a growing global attention towards the mental health of minors and safety on digital platforms. The WhatsApp initiative comes alongside the accounts for teenagers already operational on Instagram, Facebook and Messenger for the age group between 13 and 17 years. The European and international context pushes decisively in this direction, as demonstrated by the recent legislative proposals of the European Union including the Kids Act and the future Digital Fairness Actin addition to the important economic agreements signed in the United States to stem young people’s addiction to social networks.
