WhatsApp Raises EU Minimum Age Ahead of New Data Privacy Law

WhatsApp, the popular messaging service owned by Facebook Inc, 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. WhatsApp 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 Ltd entity in the next few weeks. It is not clear how or if the age limit will be checked given the limited data requested and held by the service.