WhatsApp Details:

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Description: Quite simply, WhatsApp is a messaging app available for most smartphone platforms using the internet connection or Wi-Fi to message, call, text, group chat, and send photos, videos, and voice messages with friends and family. Though not as popular in the United States as services like Skype or Google Chat, WhatsApp is the most popular messaging service in the world (boasting over 900 million active monthly users), thanks to huge customer bases in emerging markets like India, Brazil, Mexico, and all of Africa.

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What Parents Need to Know About WhatsApp:

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Any Porn? There aren’t many serious risks with WhatsApp in terms of accidental exposure to inappropriate content just from casual use. Parents should still have discussions about privacy and monitor who kids are communicating with, similar to teaching a child how to use texting because it’s not difficult for someone to send your child something inappropriate.

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History is Gone: Parents should note that conversations can be easily deleted. We’re big fans of BARK Parental Controls, which for iOS can monitor your child’s messages and message attachments (if available). Bark can monitor WhatsApp messages for Android and Amazon device users.Related article: We’re Big Fans of Bark Parental Controls

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Instagram and Facebook Integration: WhatsApp is owned by Facebook (as is Instagram), and a Spring 2018 update now allows videos that originated in either Facebook or Instagram that show up in WhatsApp to play directly in the WhatsApp interface without needing access to either of the originating apps.

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Group Chat Security: WhatsApp lets the user decide who can add them to a group chat. A user can choose everyone, contacts only, or nobody (in this situation, the sender can decide whether to send you an invite to join the group, then you have three days to accept).

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HD Photos: Users can toggle on HD photos, which might sound underwhelming, but for a messaging app with so many users the quality of the shared content greatly matters!

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Voice Chat Rooms: Users can create voice chat rooms, where others can pop in and out of the ongoing audio call. This feels a lot like Discord‘s channels and servers.

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Privacy controls: Users can decide which contacts can see their profile picture, their bio,  and their last seen and online status. When a user chooses to block another user from seeing this information that user will not be able to see the online status of the other user.

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WhatsApp Bottom Line:

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We are warm to WhatsApp based on the minimal risk factors noted above. As a first step, iMessage is a better starting point, but WhatsApp is a great second step (instead of a high-risk messaging app like Kik). But, in a consistent theme, there are just no parental controls, which requires parents to use something to monitor its activity.

What if I have more questions? How can I stay up to date?

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Two actions you can take!

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1. Subscribe to our tech trends newsletter, the PYE Download. About every 3 weeks, we’ll share what’s new, what the PYE team is up to, and a message from Chris.
2. Ask your questions in our private parent community called The Table! It’s not another Facebook group. No ads, no algorithms, no asterisks. Just honest, critical conversations and deep learning! For parents who want to “go slow” together. Become a member today!

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