But I wonder how many indulgent parents will still let their dc's have it just like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Reddit, Tumbir, Googlle+ and Pinterest are all 13 and over but parents fall for the "everyone else is using it so I have to" line from their dcs and still let them use these apps in primary school as well as Y7. DG

A lot of families use it & find it very useful. I understand that there can be bullying, but people will allow it because it is so useful for families.

Any idea what the reasoning is behind suddenly making it over 16's only?

Perhaps I'd been misguided but I'd always thought Whatsapp was a relatively safe app because you can control who is in a particular group. Compared to something like Twitter which anyone in the world can access and is available to anyone over 13? Is there any reason Whatsapp should be considered more "adult" than other social media such as Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat etc?

We currently have a family Whatsapp group that we use to communicate and share photos with wider family members. It includes our 15 year old DS and his similarly aged cousins. Will be a bit of a pain if we now need to change to a different social media as it took the grandparents long enough to get used to this one!

I find that bizarre. What's App is so much better (in my opinion!) than most of the other social media apps and so much less open to abuse? (in my admittedly limited experience)
My children were not allowed Facebook etc before 13 (and were even older before we let them have Snapchat) and actually both of them have deleted everything other than Instagram and What's App - but as a family we use What's App all the time so we can send family messages to multiple recipients (even just "I'm running late to pick you all up, wait there!")
I won't be making them delete it because my life would be so much more difficult if they didn't have that.

It is only in the EU because of new data privacy regulations which come into force on 25th May.

As we are currently in the EU we have to abide by it. DG

It is also encrypted which adds an extra layer of security. To my annoyance my family won't use it for a group chat and we use iMessage instead which is much more clunky than WA. I would prefer to see the back of things like snapchat and instagram which seem to send endless notifications to my sons and encourage the selfie culture as well. My lot don't go near Facebook except for Messenger so aren't advertising themselves to the world online.

Baby out with bathwater time

We use it all the time for sharing photos, emailed documents of which it is useful to have a duplicate within the family group when we are out etc

Yes, given the option, I will be that shocking 'indulgent parent'. DS2 is currently 15 years, 6 months and a perfectly responsible user of the facility, thanks.

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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx

So why is is just Whatsapp that is subject to these stricter EU regulations?

Me too! I'd be quite happy if Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat were to become 16+ only. I'm not a fan of any of them. And yet it seems that they will continue to be available to 13 year olds while the one family friendly facility that we actually find useful won't!

We use WhatsApp, and will continue to - if you want to call me an indulgent parent, then so be it, DG.....in our opinion it is a very good way of sharing videos with family of our boys playing sport etc, where no-one else can see - it is also used having fully researched the other options - sometimes knowing and understanding about something takes the fear out of it. We keep in touch with far flung family in a much safer way than other social media apps - and actually, arguably than some emails - it is also used by our rugby coach to keep in touch with us and his team, meaning if someone says they cannot get to or from a rugby match, another family can easily make the offer of transport and everyone knows what is going on.

DS2 does not have facebook - DS1 does but rarely uses it - it's very old hack for them now - something the "old people" use!!