Now children below 13 years of age can also create an account on WhatsApp. To make this easier, the company has recently introduced the “Parent-Managed Account” feature. This feature allows parents to link their children’s accounts to their devices. The advantage of this is that parents will be able to keep an eye on their children’s conversations. On one hand, while many countries are limiting access to social media for children under 16 years of age, on the other hand, WhatsApp has introduced this feature especially for young children. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using such a feature, and what effect will it have on the mental development of children?
Despite parental controls, many risks remain
Prabir Jana, IT Manager, Macure Hospital, explains that while parental controls help protect children from exposure to inappropriate things, the risks are not completely eliminated due to constantly changing technology, encrypted content and automatically disappearing messages. However, parents can make their children aware of these dangers by talking openly to them.
Encryption makes it difficult to trace
Nowadays, chats on WhatsApp—as well as on many other platforms—are end-to-end encrypted. As a result, it becomes difficult to trace the actual content of these chats. This makes it difficult to determine with whom the children are communicating. Additionally, the risk of children becoming victims of scams also increases. Children trust people easily and are often unaware that genuine applications never ask users to share verification codes. Such scams spread rapidly on platforms like WhatsApp, Snapchat and Discord. Therefore, it is very important to explain to children that they should never share any verification code with anyone.
How scammers target children
Prabir Jana explains that scammers and fraudsters target children by creating fake profiles. Initially, they may compliment someone in a public group or chat, and after that, they start sending direct messages. Their goal is to gain trust and friendship, which ultimately culminates in asking for photos and videos. Similarly, scammers lure victims by promising rewards in exchange for sharing OTP, or they impersonate a friend or influencer to extract personal information.
What are the preventive measures?
Always use Apple Family Sharing or Google Family Link. These tools offer a variety of options, including app approval controls, screen time limits, and content filtering.
Create an account for your children on WhatsApp that you manage yourself. With this you will be able to control their incoming messages and calls.
Turn on “Teen-Parent Mode” on every app—including Snapchat and Instagram—and turn off features like location sharing and auto-disappearing messages.
Always use a strong password on your device and turn on screen time monitoring.
What effect do social media and messaging platforms have on the minds of children?
Nowadays children start using smartphones and messaging apps at a very early age. This affects their social and emotional development. Talking on this topic, Arpita Kohli, psychologist and counselor at PSRI Hospital, says that messaging platforms like WhatsApp impact the social and emotional development of the child. Their use reduces face-to-face communication. As a result, their ability to understand emotions, develop communication skills, and form social relationships is not fully developed. Therefore, parental guidance is very important when children use these platforms.
As for WhatsApp’s parent-managed accounts, Kohli says they can help kids learn to navigate the online world safely and responsibly. Although these accounts prevent children from interacting with strangers, if screen time is not strictly limited, children can become completely dependent on digital interactions.
What advice do you have for parents?
Giving advice to parents, Kohli suggests that instead of keeping a strict eye on children, parents should have open and honest conversations with them. While teaching them about online safety, parents should also create clear and specific rules about screen time use. Additionally, children should also be told who they can trust. It is also important to explain to children why they are being monitored.
