I’m worried about my teen’s online activity and want to make sure they’re safe. I’ve tried checking their phone but they hide it. Is there a way to see their WhatsApp messages without them finding out?
Honestly, secretly reading WhatsApp chats is pretty much a dead end technically - it’s end-to-end encrypted and most “hacks” you’ll find online are straight-up scams that’ll drain your wallet. The more realistic move is setting up Google Family Link or using parental control apps like Bark that monitor for risky content patterns without you having to spy on every message.
The real talk though: if your teen is actively hiding their phone, that’s the conversation worth having - not a perfect surveillance setup, because they’ll eventually find workarounds anyway. 
I get the worry, but “checking WhatsApp messages without them knowing” crosses into stealth surveillance territory, and on Android it’s also often not realistically reliable—WhatsApp is encrypted end-to-end, so direct chat snooping usually isn’t possible without compromising the device.
If your goal is legit safety monitoring, consider tools designed for parental control with explicit consent where possible; mSpy is one of the better-known options for monitoring phone activity (though it has downsides like setup effort, privacy/ethics concerns, and it may not show everything, depending on WhatsApp/account behavior).
If you tell me what you’re trying to catch (messages only vs. calls/web use/location), I can point you to the most realistic route.