Father’s Day 2022: WhatsApp tips and tricks to help fathers stay safe online

Fathers Day is right around the corner and WhatsApp is used by millions of fathers all around the world. As technology improves each day, so do privacy concerns. It is important to bridge the technology gap and raise awareness about online safety, encouraging our fathers to understand the various safety tools and resources that can be used to stay in control online.

Here are some WhatsApp tips and tricks you can share with fathers everywhere for their online safety and digital well-being.

WhatsApp has created a label for all forwarded messages and limits the number of times you can forward messages as a way to encourage users to reconsider before sharing. Our fathers should be made aware that if they aren’t sure whether something’s true or don’t know the source of the message, they must not forward it, as it may be fake information.

In India, there are 10 independent fact-checking organizations on WhatsApp that users can refer to, to identify, review, verify the information and help prevent the spread of misinformation on its platform. Additionally, WhatsApp also enables its users to verify the information by texting The Poynter Institute’s IFCN WhatsApp chatbot to get a message or information validated.

WhatsApp allows users to add an extra layer of security to their account by enabling the Two-Step Verification feature, which requires a six-digit PIN when resetting and verifying your WhatsApp account. This is helpful in the event of your father’s SIM card being stolen or if his phone is compromised.

Unlike traditional SMS, WhatsApp provides a simple way for users to block accounts. We must inform our dads that they can easily make reports to WhatsApp if they encounter problematic messages. In addition, WhatsApp now provides the option for people to keep reported messages on their phone if they want to share them with fact checkers or law enforcement officials.

With features like ‘Disappearing Messages’ where new messages sent in the individual or group chat disappear depending on the duration users select and ‘View Once’ which enables users to send photos and videos that disappear from the chat after they’ve been opened, Whatsapp aims at giving father’s even more control over their privacy than ever before.

Our fathers transact in the online world daily and thus protecting their personal information and privacy is essential when using the internet. Sharing sensitive information such as address, phone number, passwords, credit/ debit card numbers, and bank account information should be avoided. On WhatsApp, users have the power to control their personal details such as - Profile Photo, Last Seen, About, Status and who it's seen by - everyone, contacts only, select contacts, or no one.

The Internet is privy to spam messages, cyber threats and frauds, be it a job offer, winning a cash prize or a fully sponsored trip from an unknown number. These messages often include links to a website or request access to personal information with disguised malware. While we may be aware netizens, our fathers may be more susceptible to falling prey to such scams. Hence, it is important to educate our fathers that they must think before they click - If you receive it on WhatsApp, you can simply report accounts to WhatsApp by flagging a specific message. To do so, you can simply long-press a particular message to either ‘report’ or ‘block a user’.