In line with the new data law change in Europe coming into effect next month, WhatsApp has announced that it will be raising the minimum age from 13 to 16 years.
The European Union is updating its privacy laws to require greater transparency for how people’s information is used online. And WhatsApp is also updating its Terms of Service and Privacy Policy where the law known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is taking effect.
WhatsApp will ask European users to confirm they are at least 16 years old when they are prompted to agree new terms of service and a privacy policy in the next few weeks.
It is not however clear how the Facebook owned messaging platform will enforce this new law.
However according to Reuters, Facebook, which has a separate data policy, is taking a different approach to teens aged between 13 and 15 in order to comply with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) law.
It is asking them to nominate a parent or guardian to give permission for them to share information on the platform, otherwise they will not see a fully personalized version of the social media platform.
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.
