WhatsApp prohibits anyone under the age of 16 from using their application in Europe. It increases the age limit in three years just when the European data privacy rules begin to work on May 25, as noted by Reuters .
When users in Europe sign in to the application in the coming weeks, they will be asked to confirm their age by accepting the new terms of service and an updated privacy policy. WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, has an independent data policy. It has made new changes in addition to increasing the age limit, even allowing users to download a copy of their WhatsApp data, which will contain their contacts and any number they have blocked.
Facebook's approach to complying with the new rules will be to ask 13- to 15-year-olds to obtain permission from parents to share personal information on the platform. If they do not get permission, they will see a more generic version of Facebook that is not personalized based on their data.
In regions outside Europe, the minimum age to use WhatsApp is still 13. The GDPR of Europe will oblige companies to follow user requests to delete personal data, and in the month prior to the application of the rules, and especially after Facebook's breach of Cambridge Analytica data, technology companies are reconsidering their data retention policies.