They are WhatsApp accounts for children under 13 that a parent creates and manages from their own phone. They let you decide which contacts can write to your child and which group invitations they can accept, and review the requests that arrive from unknown numbers — all protected by a six-digit parental PIN. What they do not let you do is read their conversations: messages and calls stay end-to-end encrypted. They control who can talk to your child, not what is said.
Meta announced them in March 2026 and they are rolling out gradually, country by country. It is the first parental control WhatsApp offers out of the box, and it is worth understanding its scope properly before deciding whether it is enough for you: it solves one specific problem very well and leaves another one entirely untouched.
WhatsApp is officially for people aged 13 and over, or the minimum age each country sets if that age is higher. Managed accounts are the way for a child below that age to use the app under supervision: the adult creates the profile, links it to their own and manages the settings from their own phone. The child uses a limited version of WhatsApp — messages and calls, and nothing else: channels, Status updates and Meta AI are left out — and cannot change those settings on their own.
Three things, and they are precisely the ones that cause the most concern at this age. First, which contacts are authorized to communicate with your child. Second, which group invitations they can accept, which is where the contacts nobody chose usually turn up. Third, the message requests arriving from unknown numbers, which go through your review before reaching them. All of that is protected by a six-digit parental PIN, which is also needed to change any setting.
They do not show you the content of the conversations. Messages and calls remain protected by WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption, which is the same for every account: neither Meta nor you can read them from outside. If what you need is to know who your child talks to and to limit who can reach them, managed accounts solve that and you need nothing else. If what worries you is what is being said in a specific conversation — a case of harassment, an adult who already got past the filter, a change in behavior you cannot explain — that is what managed accounts will not give you.
From your own WhatsApp app, creating your child's account and linking it to yours. The initial setup requires both phones on hand, yours and theirs; after that you manage it from yours. The rollout is gradual: Meta confirmed that the accounts would be enabled progressively in the months following the March 2026 announcement, so the option may not have appeared in your country yet. If you do not see it, it is not a problem with your phone.
Managed accounts are designed for preteens. From 13 on, WhatsApp considers the account to belong to the user themselves, and there is no equivalent supervised version. At that age control stops being a feature of the app and becomes a conversation: what is agreed, what is reviewed and for what reason. Our guides on how to talk about the subject and on what the law says by age cover that ground.
No. End-to-end encryption stays the same as on any other WhatsApp account. You can control who writes to them and which groups they join, but not see the content of the conversations.
They are designed for children under 13, which is WhatsApp's official minimum age, or the minimum legal age your country sets if that age is higher. From then on the account belongs to the user themselves and no managed version exists.
The rollout has been gradual since March 2026 and it did not reach every country at once. If the option still does not appear in your WhatsApp, it is a matter of waiting.
Not without the six-digit parental PIN, which is what protects the settings. You are the one who sets that PIN, and it is better if it is not a date they know.
For what they do, yes, and they are free: if your concern is who your child talks to, you do not need to pay for anything. They do not replace a supervision app if what you need is to see the content of the conversations, which is a different and considerably more serious case.
This guide describes the feature as it was announced and documented on the review date. WhatsApp may change its scope or its availability; the official source is the app itself.
Related guides: Can I read my child's WhatsApp messages legally? · Signs of grooming & cyberbullying · Parental controls on Android · Is it legal to monitor my child?