Facebook-owned WhatsApp is raising its minimum age from 13 to 16 for users in Europe to help it comply with new data privacy rules coming into force next month.
According to the company:
If you live in a country in the European Economic Area (which includes the European Union), and any other included country or territory (collectively referred to as the European Region), you must be at least 16 years old (or such greater age required in your country) to register for and use WhatsApp.
WhatsApp did not say how it is going to enforce this policy, although it did state that it is a violation of their terms of service to create an account with false information, or to register an account for an underage person.
For countries outside the European Region, the minimum age to use the platform is 13 years.
