WhatsApp Raises Minimum Age In Europe To 16 Ahead of Data Law Change (reuters.com) 39
WhatsApp is raising its minimum age from 13 to 16 in Europe to help it comply with new data privacy rules coming into force next month. The app will ask European users to confirm they are at least 16 years old when they are prompted to agree to new terms of service and a privacy policy provided by a new WhatsApp Ireland entity in the next few weeks. Reuters reports: Facebook, which has a separate data policy, is taking a different approach to teens aged between 13 and 15 in order to comply with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) law. It is asking them to nominate a parent or guardian to give permission for them to share information on the platform, otherwise they will not see a fully personalized version of the social media platform. But WhatsApp, which had more than 1.5 billion users in January according to Facebook, said in a blog post it was not asking for any new rights to collect personal information in the agreement it has created for the European Union. WhatsApp's minimum age of use will remain 13 years in the rest of the world, in line with its parent.
Well, That will stop kids from clicking im 16+! (Score:1)
This is stupid, I have been on the internet since i was a kid. I cant tell you how many times I said i was 13 when I was under.. And even more saying I was 18 when I was nowhere close. I am by no means advocating for having to give ID and prove someone is a certain age, I however this these kinds of laws are bullshit and everyone knows what really happens.
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You can not enter a contract with a minor as a business and maybe as an adult(?), That button afaik is a contract.
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also, if the kids parent comes in and says he wasn't allowed to buy the candy , the store probably is required by law to take it back ( although they could probably keep the money as damages). The point being ANY transaction with a minor is very much and the merchants own risk because a minor DOES NOT have legal control of themselves or any of their property. So unless they see mom and dad are their and see them hand the kid the money there is probably a risk. It gets even dicier if a 10+ year old is sen
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"You can not enter a contract with a minor as a business "
Sure you can, groceries, the ice-creme-man and other shops do it all the time.
You cannot _enforce_ the contract when the parents object to the purchase.
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Buying a candy bar is not a contract.
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It might not stop kids from lying. But AI is getting better at weeding out underage users. And finding the real identities behind Internet pseudonyms. The result being people getting their accounts suspended [slashdot.org].
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There are plenty of ways around this, unless people are going to completely block anonymous(proxy's and ToR) communication with their servers.
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WhatsApp runs on mobile platforms. And it depends on you having a mobile phone number, so they can figure out who you are. They might not be able to read your messages. But if they link a device to a person under 16, that's all they need to know to drop you.
At one point, someone wrote an unauthorized port of WhatsApp. They detected it and blocked those users. So they can find you and stop you if so motivated. Since they are releasing enterprise tools for the app, they can easily be pressured to conform to
Kids won't click on WhatsApp's button (Score:2)
No, kid under age will not actually click the "16+" button on WhatsApp's authorisation page...
...for the simple reason that they don't use WhatsApp.
They tend to hang out on SnapChat.
(Which is the reason why the Zuck is nervous about them : there the only successful social app that he didn't manage to buy like WhatsApp, Instagram, etc.)
Re:Well, That will stop kids from clicking im 16+! (Score:4, Insightful)
This is stupid, I have been on the internet since i was a kid. I cant tell you how many times I said i was 13 when I was under.. And even more saying I was 18 when I was nowhere close. I am by no means advocating for having to give ID and prove someone is a certain age, I however this these kinds of laws are bullshit and everyone knows what really happens.
Like any age gate, enforcing the age restriction isn't important, it's about making an effort to say "we put in an age gate, we've complied with the law". Likewise, the law requiring an age gate is arse covering for the politicians so they can say "we've made all these sites put in an age gate... we're doing Something(TM), re-elect Shonkey McShonkface for governor" and the "think of the Children" crowd get a warm fuzzy feeling about all the children they're protecting.
WhatsApp Raises Minimum Age In Europe To 16 (Score:1)
That's some serious spacetime manipulation IP they got there.
Alternatively... (Score:2)
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It has nothing to do with them collecting "so much data".
Literally, if you store somebody's name, you come under GDPR legislation.
GDPR is a huge change / consolidation of existing case law in data protection and has massive implications for EVERYONE. Fact is, a 13-year-old could never consent to their personal data being used anyway - only if someone did it on their behalf. It was just assumed that nobody would bother.
(For instance, in the UK, age of "legal consent" for contracts is 16 - gosh where have I
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I'm sorry, what?
Conflict of interest has nothing to do with it.
And the existing legislation (Data Protection Act) specifically did not cover:
- Anything non-electronically stored.
- Anything with implied or general consent (i.e. a parent signing "you may store records on our child" without us having to list every god-damn thing we store down to the letter... now we require "explicit" and "specific" consent for everything)
- Destruction of data upon request.
That's three entire processes running into THOUSANDS
No way to actually do this. (Score:2)
I mean , how do you remotely verify age. take a selfie and picture of your drivers license. I guess that would be a start, that would at least prove there was someone with a drivers license, your registered name and that looks something like you ( assuming you could access DMV records) . Still talk about a privacy nightmare. Maybe some kind of third party verifier would be better.
There's no age of consent in GDPR. (Score:2)
UK is adopting 13 as age of consent in Data Protection Bill.
I think this is just WhatsApp not wanting to deal with underage issues - e.g. bullying / adult content. This has absolutely nothing to do with Data Protection.