Recently, several US states, including Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Utah, and Connecticut, have passed age verification laws. These laws, in simple terms, require the user to declare their birth year on social media apps to curb children"s access to adult content and also prevent them from accessing certain sites without their parent"s consent.
While the above states have passed the age verification law, the law is under development in other states as well. Now, it looks like Meta is all set to make WhatsApp ready to comply with these laws because the latest WhatsApp Android beta update, shows some codes that highlight a prompt asking users for their birth year.
The codes were spotted in the WhatsApp Android beta v2.24.12.25 by WABetaInfo. The prompt warns the user that the birth year information cannot be changed at a later stage, and it is essential if the user wants to use WhatsApp.
According to the screenshot shared by WABetaInfo, the prompt titled "When were you born?" requires the user to enter the date of birth. As soon as you enter the date of birth, you will see your automatically calculated age on the right. When you press Next, a confirmation prompt will pop up where you have to confirm your age.
Meta will not show your age anywhere on WhatsApp. It seems likely that WhatsApp will be presenting this prompt to comply with certain US laws. Also, there is a possibility that you will see this age verification prompt on WhatsApp when you either reside in a state that requires age verification laws on social media apps or are visiting there.
Besides this, WhatsApp is also working on adding a redesigned bottom calling bar to the Android app that makes it easier to control the different functions during a call.