WhatsApp lowers minimum age in Europe to 13 years old

London
CNN
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Social media giant Meta lowers minimum age required to use WhatsApp In Europe, the number of deaths has increased from 16 to 13, prompting criticism from child rights groups.

The new age limit came into effect in the European Union on Thursday. In February, a new minimum age of 13 was also announced for users in the UK.

The messaging service, which was acquired by META a decade ago, said on its website that the changes will ensure “consistent minimum age requirements for WhatsApp around the world.”

However, the lower age limit has sparked criticism from children’s rights groups in the UK, who say it will further expose young people to a host of well-documented online harms.

In a statement Thursday, the UK-based campaign group Smartphone Free Childhood called on WhatsApp to reverse the new policy. “WhatsApp puts shareholder interests first and children’s safety second,” said Daisy Greenwell, the group’s co-founder.

Lowering the age limit is “totally tone-deaf” and echoes the alarm bells from scientists, doctors, teachers, child safety experts, parents and mental health experts alike about the harms of social media use. “We’re ignoring the fact that it’s getting bigger and bigger,” she said. for children.

PA Media reports that Vicky Ford, an MP for Britain’s ruling Conservative party and a member of the government’s main committee on education, said the decision to lower the minimum age without first talking to parents was “It’s irresponsible,” he said.

A WhatsApp spokesperson told CNN on Friday. “We give all users the option to control who can be added to groups. We also give all users the option to block and report the account the first time they receive a message from an unknown number. It offers.”

The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, did not respond to requests for comment.

Meta has been roundly criticized in the past for pushing for lower age limits across its U.S. platforms.

The company announced last year that it plans to lower the minimum age for virtual reality apps from 13 to 10, despite pressure from US lawmakers not to sell such services to young users.

CNN also reported that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has personally repeatedly blocked efforts intended to improve the well-being of teens on the company’s other platforms, Facebook and Instagram. It was reported last year.

Internal communications released as part of an ongoing lawsuit against the company show that Mr. Zuckerberg sometimes directly overruled some top executives who had called for greater protections for young people.

However, Meta said in a press release on Thursday that it is testing features that protect young people from the risks of “sextortion” and “intimate image abuse”, independent of changes to WhatsApp’s age policy in Europe. Ta. The hope is that the new feature will “make it more difficult for potential scammers and criminals to find and interact with teens.”

Sextortion predators typically trick young victims into believing they are talking to people their own age. They convince you to send explicit photos and videos and threaten to publish the images if you don’t pay.