WhatsApp users in Europe, from May 25th, will have to be at least 16 years old to use the messaging plartform.
The company is raising the age limit by three years in line with the European data privacy rules which is set to kick in on May 25th, according to a report by Reuters.
When users in Europe log onto the app in the next few weeks, they’ll be asked to confirm their age when accepting the new terms of service and an updated privacy policy. WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, has a separate data policy of its own. It’s made new changes beyond raising the age limit, including allowing users to download a copy of their data from WhatsApp, which will contain their contacts and any numbers they’ve blocked.
Facebook’s approach to complying with the new rules will instead be to ask teens ages 13 to 15 to gain parental permission for sharing personal information on the platform. If they don’t get permission, they’ll see a more generic version of Facebook that’s not customized based on their data.
In regions outside of Europe, however, the minimum age to use WhatsApp still remains 13. Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will force companies to follow users’ requests to delete personal data.
Social media companies have recently been under immense pressure to increase its efforts to protect customers’ private information as there has been many breaches which has led to the leakage and inappropriate use of customers information.
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