WhatsApp requires users to be at least 13 years old, or older depending on your country, and users under 18 need parental permission.
Children under 13 are prohibited from using WhatsApp, and users aged 13-17 require parental consent, but the policy does not specify technical enforcement mechanisms, leaving open questions about whether children's data is inadvertently collected and subject to COPPA protections.
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Compare across platforms →WhatsApp's minimum age requirement and parental consent mechanism for minors aged 13-17 are critical child safety provisions, but the policy provides limited detail on how underage registration is technically prevented or detected.
1. REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: This provision directly engages COPPA (15 U.S.C. §6501 et seq. and 16 C.F.R. Part 312), which prohibits collection of personal information from children under 13 without verifiable parental consent, enforced by the FTC. EU GDPR Art. 8 sets the digital consent age at 16 (with member states permitted to lower to 13), meaning WhatsApp must obtain parental consent for users aged 13-15 in most EU member states. UK GDPR and the ICO's Age Appropriate Design Code (Children's Code) impose additional obligations for services accessible to under-18s in the UK. 2.
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