Today, WhatsApp unveiled parent-managed accounts for pre-teens. These are currently rolling out globally, and they come with new controls to limit pre-teens’ WhatsApp experience to messaging and calling.
Parents will set up the pre-teen’s account, and the account will be controlled by the parent, including by deciding who can contact the account and which groups they can join. Parents can also review message requests from unknown contacts and manage the account’s privacy settings. All of this is gated by a parent PIN on the managed account.
As usual with such rollouts, it might take a while before this becomes available to you. To use it, download WhatsApp on your child’s device and when setting up an account you need to select More options and then “Create a parent-managed account”. Then you register and verify your child’s number, and enter their birthday and confirm their age. After that, you’ll scan a QR code on their phone that will link their WhatsApp account with yours, and create your six-digit parent PIN.
