WhatsApp App Review

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What Is WhatsApp?

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WhatsApp is a free messaging app by Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram). ‍

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‍It allows users to send text messages, voice messages, photos, videos, documents, and locations to individuals or groups. WhatsApp can also be used for voice and video calls, including group calls.

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The app is extremely popular worldwide and is often used as a replacement for traditional texting because it works over Wi-Fi and mobile data. While WhatsApp markets itself as simple and private, its features can raise important safety considerations for families.

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WhatsApp’s official age requirement is 13, but there is no reliable age-verification process, making it easy for younger kids to sign up.

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How Does WhatsApp Work?

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To create a WhatsApp account, users must provide a phone number. Once registered, WhatsApp automatically syncs with the phone’s contact list to show which contacts are already using the app.

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Key features include:

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• One-on-one messaging
• Group chats (up to hundreds of participants)
• Voice and video calls
• Disappearing messages (similar to Snapchat)
• Status updates (similar to Stories on other platforms)
• Media sharing, including photos, videos, and voice notes

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WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption, meaning messages can only be read by the sender and recipient. While this protects privacy, it also means parents and law enforcement have limited visibility into harmful and inappropriate conversations. 

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This alone makes WhatsApp a high-risk environment for digital communication. 

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What Do Parents Need to Know about WhatsApp?

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WhatsApp includes several features that can pose risks for kids and teens. The way we as parents and adults experience this app, can be extremely different than how our kids might experience it. With scams and predators often perferring to use this app for secret communications due to the apps "end-to-end" encryption. WhatsApp has a wide range of risks that parents should consider:

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1. WhatsApp Group Chats Are Risky

Group chats are a great concern on WhatsApp. 

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Kids can be added to large groups without parental approval, exposing them to inappropriate language or content, cyberbullying, or messages from people they don’t know well. Either from friends of friends or from complete strangers.

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2. WhatsApp Has Disappearing Messages and Locked Chats

Like Snapchat, WhatsApp allows messages to disappear automatically after a set time. 

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Whenever content disappears, there is often a higher risk of secret conversations, less accountability for harmful behavior, difficulty for parents in checking their kids’ activity, and it’s nearly impossible for law enforcement to address serious harms that happen on WhatsApp. 

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Predators often seek to move conversations from other platforms onto Snapchat or WhatsApp because of this. Because of this, WhatsApp may see more predatory activity than other messaging apps.

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There are also "Locked Chats" in WhatsApp.

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These are hidden or locked chats. WhatsApp allows a conversation to be placed in a special Locked Chats folder that only opens with the phone’s passcode, fingerprint, or Face ID.

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Once locked, the chat disappears from the normal message list and notifications won’t show message previews. On top of that, the folder itself can be hidden, and it only appears if someone types a specific code or word into the search bar on the main chat screen.

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This means a parent scrolling through messages might see nothing unusual, even though private conversations are still happening.

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Since it's based off of the devices passcode, there aren't any settings in WhatsApp that can help.

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Our guides for iPhones and Android devices can help ensure the correct settings are in place.

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3. WhatsApp Allows Easy Contact with Strangers

If a child’s phone number is shared or guessed, strangers can message them directly. Blocking and reporting tools exist, but they rely on the child recognizing and responding to a problem. 

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This allows for strangers to add people into group chats easily.

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4. WhatsApp Contains Scams and Inappropriate Content

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WhatsApp has been used for scams, explicit content sharing, and impersonation attempts. Kids may not recognize warning signs as easily as adults.

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5. WhatsApp Doesn’t Have Parental Controls

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As with most Meta apps, the parental controls are rather limited. 

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WhatsApp does not offer built-in parental controls or a dedicated parent dashboard. With limited controls available, it’s up to us dive into the settings. 

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You can do this! We explain it all below, step by step.

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How to Make WhatsApp Safer:

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Regardless of the app, three actions mitigate the risks we’ve shared. We teach these actions in our parent presentations:

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1. Require approval for all app downloads.
2. Follow the 7-Day Rule
3. Enable in-app controls and settings

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We explain each of them briefly below. If you’ve already set up approvals for downloads and have used the app, please skip to the In-App Controls & Settings.

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Require Approval for App Downloads

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You can control app stores by requiring permission for apps to be downloaded. This is ensures your child doesn’t have access to an app without your knowledge. Here are the steps (for Apple and Android users):

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For Apple Devices:

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To require permission to download an app, you’ll need to set up Screen Time and Family Sharing (Apple’s Parental Controls). We explain this process step-by-step in our Complete iOS Guide (click here).  

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Once Screen Time and Family Sharing are established, here’s how to require permission to download apps on an Apple device:

1. Go to your Settings app.
2. Select your Family.
3. Select the person you want to apply this setting to.
4. Scroll down to “Ask to Buy” and enable.

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For Android Devices:

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You’ll have to use Family Link (Android’s parental controls) to ensure you retain control over what apps are downloaded. We explain this process step-by-step in our Android Guide (click here).

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Once Family Link is established, here’s how to require permission to download apps on an Android device:

1. Go to the Family Link App
2. Select the person you want to apply this setting to.
3. Select “Google Play Store”
4. Select “Purchases & download approval” and set it to “All Content.”

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Follow the 7-Day Rule

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This is our tried-and-true method of determining whether a specific app is safe for your specific child.

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Before you let your child use it, download the app and use it for 7 days.

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Create an account with your child’s age and gender and use it for 7 days. Play through a few levels, review the ads, see if anyone can chat with you, and poke around like a curious child.

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After a week, ask yourself, “Do I want my child to experience what I did?”  Even if you decide to allow them to download the app, now you have a basis for curious conversations about the app when you check in.

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Enable In-App Controls & Settings

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How to Control Groups on WhatsApp

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This is an especially important one!

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• Go to Settings → Privacy → Groups
• Choose “My Contacts” or “My Contacts Except…”

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This prevents kids from being added to group chats by unknown users, which is a major source of inappropriate content and cyberbullying.

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How to Turn Off Disappearing Messages on WhatsApp

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• Open Settings → Privacy → Default Message Timer
• Set to Off

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Parents should also check individual chats, since disappearing messages can be enabled per conversation. This helps maintain accountability and transparency.

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How to Disable Location Sharing on WhatsApp

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• Go to Settings → Privacy → Live Location
• Review active shares and turn them off

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Location sharing can be risky if a child doesn’t fully understand who can see it.

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How to Restrict Unknown Contacts on WhatsApp

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Teach kids how to:

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• Block unknown numbers
• Report suspicious messages
• Avoid responding to messages from people they don’t know—even if the message seems harmless

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WhatsApp allows blocking directly from a chat or via Settings → Privacy → Blocked Contacts.

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How to Enable Two-Step Verification on WhatsApp

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• Go to Settings → Account → Two-Step Verification
• Set a PIN and add a parent-controlled email

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This helps protect accounts from hijacking, impersonation, and scams.

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How to Review Media Auto-Download Settings on WhatsApp

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• Go to Settings → Storage and Data
• Turn off automatic media downloads

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This reduces the chance of inappropriate images or videos being saved to the phone without the child realizing it.

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Bottom Line: Is WhatsApp Safe for Kids?

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No, not really. 

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WhatsApp is not designed specifically for kids, and it offers very few safeguards for younger users. While its encryption protects privacy, it also makes it difficult for parents to check in and help when something goes wrong.

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For older teens, WhatsApp may be appropriate with clear boundaries, ongoing conversations, and device-level monitoring. For younger kids, it’s just not worth it as the risks often outweigh the benefits.

WhatsApp can be useful, especially for communicating overseas, but it requires intentional parenting, regular check-ins, and strong digital boundaries. Parents should not assume that “private” means “safe.” For messaging apps, the reverse is often true.

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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