LONDON: Social media giant Meta has been urged to reverse the lowering of the minimum age to use WhatsApp.

The change, which reduces the age limit from 16 to 13, came into force in the UK and EU on April 11.

British Campaign group Smartphone Free Childhood said the move by Meta, which also owns Facebook and Instagram, was “tone deaf”.

Co-founder Daisy Greenwell said: “WhatsApp is putting shareholder profits first and children’s safety second.

“Reducing their age of use from 16 to 13 years old is completely tone deaf and ignores the increasingly loud alarm bells being rung by scientists, doctors, teachers, child safety experts, parents and mental health experts alike.”

She continued: “Among parents, WhatsApp is seen as the safest social media app, ‘because it’s just messaging, right?’.

“And in that way it works like a gateway drug for the rest of the social media apps. If you’re messaging your friends on WhatsApp, why not message them on Snapchat?

“WhatsApp is far from risk-free. It’s often the first platform where children are exposed to extreme content, bullying is rife and it’s the messaging app of choice for sexual predators due to its end-to-end encryption."