NEW YORK (AP) — Teenagers can officially open a Venmo account with their parents’ permission, the company said Monday, expanding the popular social-payments app to an age demographic.
Using Venmo isn’t necessarily new to a good number of teens: parents set up accounts for their kids through their own accounts, which is actually a violation of Venmo’s terms of service. There are guides online that show parents how to create a child account without being penalized by Venmo.
Venmo has been a popular way for people to send money for years and now has over 90 million users. The teen product comes at a time when politicians and regulators are taking a closer look at other social apps. The state of Montana banned TikTok last week, and other states are considering banning it as well.
Company executives estimated in March that a single Venmo account for teenagers could generate 25 million new leads. The company estimates that 9 million teenagers have used the app through their parents.
A Venmo Teen account is available to teens ages 13-17 and comes with a debit card. Parents can monitor transactions, adjust privacy settings, and make money transfers. Parents can block and unblock the debit card and see who the teen is sending and receiving money from.
Parents can monitor up to five teen Venmo accounts.
Banks have been developing bank account products for kids for decades, but with the rise of e-commerce and fintech companies, a basic checking account for a teenager is no longer enough.
