As the conversation on online safety, especially for children, occupies more social and legislative space, companies at the centre of social media platforms, especially the biggest of them all, Meta, have been under increasing pressure to introduce measures to safeguard online safety.

In the light of increased scrutiny, Meta-owned WhatsApp has introduced parental control features designed to enhance platform safety for adolescent users while providing guardians with management capabilities to protect their children's online activities.

These controls grant parents the ability to establish appropriate privacy settings for their children's accounts, monitor their social connections, and customise their Meta AI usage parameters.

Parents can configure privacy preferences that determine who may view their child's profile picture and which users can add them to group conversations. Any modifications to these settings require parental authorisation through a parent-established PIN.

Additionally, parents receive notifications when their teenager joins or exits groups, or when groups containing their teenager experience significant membership growth.

Parents also maintain authority over their child's Channels access and status visibility settings and can select between standard 13+ Meta AI settings or a more restrictive 'Limited Content' option.

Regarding security, WhatsApp ensures that personal messages and calls remain encrypted end-to-end, with access restricted exclusively to conversation participants.

WhatsApp has commenced the global rollout of these parental controls, with full availability anticipated within the coming days. Explained - Why Auto stocks, led by Bajaj fell up to 8% after their September sales numbers