Venmo to be officially available for teenagers, although many use it already

NEW YORK (AP) — Teenagers will officially be allowed to open a Venmo account with their parent's permission, the company said Monday, expanding the popular social payments app to a age demographic that is likely to embrace it almost immediately. 

Using Venmo won't necessarily be new to a good number of teens — parents often set up accounts for their children through their own accounts, which is a violation of Venmo's terms of service. There have been guides on the Internet for some time showing parents how to create a child's account without Venmo penalizing them.  

Venmo has been a popular way to send money to individuals for years, and now has more than 90 million users. The product for teens comes at a time when other social apps are being watched closely by politicians and regulators. The state of Montana banned TikTok last week and other states are considering a ban as well.  

The Venmo Teen Account will be available for 13- to 17-year-olds and comes with a debit card as well. Parents will be able to monitor transactions, adjust privacy settings as well as move money to their teenager. Parents will also be able to lock and unlock the debit card and see who the teenager is sending money to and receiving it from.