WhatsApp 'gateway drug' to social media apps for children, say campaigners as Meta lower age limit

Smartphone Free Childhood have said the decision by Meta was 'tone deaf' and that the messaging app acts as a 'gateway drug' to other forms of social media, ITV News' Chloe Keedy reports

Campaigners have urged social media giant Meta to reverse its decision to lower the minimum age to use WhatsApp from 16 to 13 amid concerns over children's mental health and safety.

Campaign group Smartphone Free Childhood said the move by Meta, which also owns Facebook and Instagram, was “tone deaf” as WhatsApp acted as a "gateway drug" to other social media platforms.

The change, which came into force in the UK and EU on Thursday, brings the minimum age limit into line with the majority of countries and protections were in place.

Smartphone Free Childhood co-founder Clare Fernyhough told ITV News that children were watching pornography and extreme violence on the platform.

"Most parents think that WhatsApp is a safe platform, so they might say we aren't going to let them have TikTok or Instagram but WhatsApp is fine - what we know from the evidence is it really isn't safe," she said.

"Children are regularly able to watch pornography. We know that 50% of 12-year-old boys are watching pornography and they are seeing that on WhatsApp, often at school - some of which is really extreme content.

"We know that by the age of 15, 75% of children have seen a beheading video, there is some really extreme stuff on there. So Meta making this decision to bring down the age signals to parents that this is a safe app, even though we know that isn't the case - and that is before we talk about cyber-bullying."

Smartphone Free Childhood co-founder Daisy Greenwell accused WhatsApp of "putting shareholder profits first and children’s safety second".

“Reducing their age of use from 16 to 13 years old is completely tone deaf and ignores the increasingly loud alarm bells being rung by scientists, doctors, teachers, child safety experts, parents and mental health experts alike," she told The Times.

“And in that way it works like a gateway drug for the rest of the social media apps. If you’re messaging your friends on WhatsApp, why not message them on Snapchat?

“WhatsApp is far from risk-free. It’s often the first platform where children are exposed to extreme content, bullying is rife and it’s the messaging app of choice for sexual predators due to its end-to-end encryption.”

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Conservative MP Vicky Ford, a member of the education select committee, said Meta’s decision to reduce the age recommendation without consulting parents was “highly irresponsible”.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the BBC the Online Safety Act would give the regulator powers to ensure social media companies are protecting children from harmful material.

He said: “They shouldn’t be seeing it, particularly things like self-harm, and if they don’t comply with the guidelines that the regulator puts down there will be in for very significant fines, because like any parent we want our kids to be growing up safely, out playing in fields or online.”

Meta this week unveiled a range of new safety features designed to protect users, in particular young people, from “sextortion” and intimate image abuse.

It confirmed it will begin testing a filter in Direct Messages (DMs) on Instagram, called Nudity Protection, which will be on by default for those aged under 18 and will automatically blur images sent to users which are detected as containing nudity.

When receiving nude images, users will also see a message urging them not to feel pressure to respond, and an option to block the sender and report the chat.

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