WhatsApp raises the minimum age for use to 16 years
from Lars Matt 
on April 16, 2018, 17:35 p.m. | Write a comment
Over 1,5 billion people worldwide use WhatsApp. Including some students - even some at the age of 13. While the use of the messenger was previously allowed from 13 years, the minimum age has now been raised to 16 years. The reason for this is the upcoming GDPR throughout the EU.
On May 25, 2018, the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR for short) will officially come into force throughout the EU. Even if some companies are not based in the EU but offer their services to users in the EU, these companies must also react accordingly. So does WhatsApp. The new law provides for parental consent for all social networks under the age of 16 to use the services. For comparison: in the past you could use the messenger from the age of 13.
WhatsApp no longer for students in the future?
Who BetaInfo Now reported on Twitter, WhatsApp should really follow the law and set the minimum age to 16 years. But are students no longer allowed to use the service? Yes - theoretically, after the confirmation process, "I'm 16 years old." Students would have to get their parents and agree to the WhatsApp terms and conditions together. The service will not be able to control it in the future either.
NEWS:
In order to respect new WhatsApp Terms of Service (available in future, **** maybe **** no later than 25 May), WhatsApp requires you to be at least 16 years old to use their services (13 is minimum age, currently).- WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) 12 April 2018
However, according to data protection officials, verification of the age must take place in any case. But what that will look like in the future is unclear. However, it will not be possible to ban students under the age of 16 anyway - registering with their parents' telephone number would be quite unlikely. In addition, the service would like to continue to have younger users on its platform - with this change you only want to protect yourself from legal Proprotect against problems.
