WhatsApp's Primary Controls Feature Will Let Parents Set Up Limited Secondary Accounts for Children: Report

WhatsApp is continuing work on parental controls and secondary accounts, expanding on details shared in earlier reports. Previously, it was known that the company was exploring restricted accounts for minors, with limited features, some activity visibility for parents, and controls to prevent interactions with unknown contacts, while keeping messages and calls protected by end-to-end encryption. New findings from recent WhatsApp beta builds for Android, including version 2.26.3.6 on the Google Play Store, now offer clearer insight into how the system might work.

WhatsApp's Primary Controls Feature Will Let Parents Set a PIN

The feature is intended to allow parents to create and manage secondary WhatsApp accounts for children who either do not meet WhatsApp's minimum age requirement or need restricted access for safety reasons, according to a post by feature tracker WABetaInfo. These accounts are said to continue to limit communication to saved contacts only.

Setting up a secondary account on WhatsApp
Photo Credit: WABetaInfo

The post notes that the feature remains under development and is not yet available to beta testers. WhatsApp is expected to roll it out in a future update once development is complete.

During setup, parents will reportedly need to link the child's account to their own by scanning a QR code and creating a six-digit primary PIN. This PIN will be needed to approve sensitive changes and prevent unauthorised modifications on the secondary account.

A screenshot shared by the feature tracker outlines tighter feature restrictions. Secondary accounts will likely not have access to the Updates tab, including channels and other broadcast-style content, which was not mentioned earlier.

WhatsApp's Chat Lock functionality will also be unavailable, ensuring conversations cannot be hidden from device-level review. These limitations are expected to reduce exposure to unknown content and prevent hidden activity.

The parents will reportedly be able to see certain actions as well, such as when a new contact is added, but they will still not have access to message content or call details. End-to-end encryption will remain unchanged, according to the feature tracker.

The secondary accounts will reportedly stay linked to a parent's account until manually removed or until the child reaches the age permitted under WhatsApp's Terms of Service. At that point, the account can transition to a regular WhatsApp profile with full features, subject to accepting updated terms, according to the new post.