(Image source from: My LifeStyle Max)
In this era of technology, every person irrespective of age is active on social media platforms.
As a result, now Facebook-owned WhatsApp is reportedly working on a new feature to ban accounts that don’t meet age requirement.
Following the implementation of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), WhatsApp early this year updated the age-limit.
European users need to be at least 16 years old to join WhatsApp. Earlier, the limit was 13 years old. For non EU users, the age limit is 13 years.
“You must be at least 13 years old to use our Services (or such greater age required in your country for you to be authorized to use our Services without parental approval). In addition to being of the minimum required age to use our Services under applicable law, if you are not old enough to have authority to agree to our Terms in your country, your parent or guardian must agree to our Terms on your behalf,” according to WhatsApp’s terms of service.
However, right now, it’s not clear how WhatsApp will verify users’ age limit to ban their accounts.
Facebook is making sure that everyone knows it owns the world’s most popular instant messaging app WhatsApp. The company recently announced it will start adding Facebook branding on its key products such as WhatsApp and Instagram. The change seems to be closer than expected as WhatsApp’s latest beta version has ‘WhatsApp from Facebook’ branding.
The ‘WhatsApp from Facebook’ branding can be spotted at the bottom of in-app Settings page. Facebook has already begun adding “Instagram from Facebook”.
The change comes months after Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg announced unifying Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram platforms.
Even as the three services will go on as standalone applications, experts have expressed concerns over the unification plans. Some experts consider the move could impact the end-to-end encryption, one of the most important security features of WhatsApp.
“I’m cautiously optimistic it’s a good thing,” former Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos had said. “My fear was that they were going to drop end-to-end encryption.”
Since the announcement by Zuckerberg, the social media giant has rolled out quite a lot features features that allow users to cross post content from one app to another. For example, WhatsApp users can now share their Status directly to Facebook.
By Sowmya Sangam
