“Channels are appearing that are managed entirely by children aged 11, 12 or a little over”, who on these channels share photos and videos of their routine in real time — at home, at school, with friends, at the pool”.
With just a few clicks, any user of the Whatsapp social network can create a public channel, and, like WhatsApp itself, Whatsapp says, so “anyone can find it”.
At the same time, any user can browse these channels that appear in the “Updates” section, where several channels are recommended and where it is possible to search for specific channels.
Now, “channels are appearing that are managed entirely by children aged 11, 12 or a little over”, who on these channels share photos and videos of their routine in real time — at home, at school, with friends, at the pool”.
The “call to attention” — accompanied by concrete examples of channels managed by children — came from Inês MarinhoPortuguese activist and founder of the Não Partilhes association, known mainly for its work against sexual violence and against the non-consensual sharing of intimate images and videos.
According to the activist, some children “expose on these channels exactly where they are, where they go and, sometimes, where they study”.
When creating a channel like this on Whatsapp, the social network warns that “followers [do canal] cannot see the cell phone number [do criador]name, or profile picture, but admins do.” And, with permission, any user who is a member of the channel can become an admin. Additionally, Any channel member can send private messages to these childrenwarns Inês Marinho.
Whatsapp channels emerged in September 2023, when they were introduced as a new way for users to stay up to date with people or organizations. They allow all types of content, from photographs, videos, link stickers, polls and audio.
WhatsApp warns that Anyone can take screenshots or recordings of posts and reactions on Channels, re-upload, export, or upload them off the platform.
Recommendations are based on information such as channel popularity, your language preferences and your activity on channels,” according to . It is possible to hide a recommended channel, but “this will be replaced by a new recommendation.”
WhatsApp says it uses automatic tools, human review and reporting to enforce the rules, and may remove content, suspend channels or report child sexual abuse material to authorities. But this also means that security depends on detection, reporting and subsequent enforcement of the rules.
a German digital literacy initiative supported by the EU, highlights that WhatsApp has a minimum age of 13 and it is not considered an application for younger children, which is why the Channels are not initially designed as a children’s environment. The same source warns that cell phone parental controls cannot, by themselves, determine what content appears within WhatsApp.
The European Commission formally designated WhatsApp as a Very Large Online Platform under the Digital Services Act because of Channels, after the feature surpassed 45 million monthly users in the EU. This designation obliges Meta to evaluate and mitigate systemic risks, including illegal content, privacy and other risks arising from the service.
