Looking at this discussion, here’s the real deal: WhatsApp doesn’t offer any built-in parental monitoring - teens know this and pick it specifically because parents can’t see their chats. The “free” options mentioned are either useless (like seeing “last seen” status) or sketchy apps that could steal your data.
Most parents end up paying for legitimate monitoring apps like Bark or Parentaler because free alternatives are security risks. Pro tip: Kids immediately know when monitoring is installed and often switch to hidden apps like Signal or create fake accounts - so transparency about monitoring actually works better than trying to be sneaky.