Download Messenger Kids
Fusberta Loparo
Facebook (FB) said it took steps to address concerns, such as working with a committee of about a dozen experts and more than 250 online safety organizations to develop the app. It also met with parents across the U.S. to hear the major concerns about their kids using technology.
"Even if these safeguards are effective, the app's overall impact on families and society is likely to be negative, normalizing social media use among young children and creating peer pressure for kids to sign up for their first account," the letter said.
If anything is going to set us apart from the competition, it will be the promises we make to parents: to prioritize the wellbeing of children and to empower our youngest digital citizens with safe, healthy technology. They can rest assured that every new element, game and activity we introduce is designed to help kids deepen their connections with loved ones, explore their creativity and cultivate new passions.
Parents also need to think about how much time they allow their kids to use this or any other app. Although they no longer issue arbitrary guidelines, the Academy of Pediatrics and most other experts agree that screen time needs to be balanced with other activities, including in-person relationships, exercise and other forms of play and communication.
If the app is used as their tagline declares: Made for kids; Controlled by Parents then we absolutely believe this messaging app is a safe place for your child to communicate with known and trusted friends and family.
Accounts have to be set up by parents, and kids can only talk to a pre-defined list of contacts. These can be relatives, who can use the ordinary Facebook Messenger app, or carefully-chosen friends. The home screen shows a list of who they can talk to, and who is online to chat.
I'll get to what's wrong with Messenger Kids shortly, but let's start with what the various articles do cover: Messenger Kids creates protected Facebook Messenger accounts for pre-teens where bad words aren't allowed (a nanny AI is watching) and parents control their kids' contact lists. This sounds good on the surface: with Messenger Kids, parents can feel safe knowing that their kids won't be trading messages with strangers or sketchy non-strangers, and parents can also relax knowing that message content won't be dirty, hurtful or scary.
Federal law prohibits internet companies from collecting personal information on kids under 13 without their parents' permission and imposes restrictions on advertising to them. This is why Facebook and many other social media companies prohibit younger kids from joining. Even so, Balkam said millions of kids under 13 are already on Facebook, with or without their parents' approval.
Balkam throws up his hands at the very idea that parents can keep their children off social media, agreeing with Facebook that it's better for the kids to have water wings and a blow-up pool than the scary, undertow-filled ocean of real Facebook.
Facebook's second pernicious goal is to do an end-run around Snapchat, which for teenagers in 2017 is crack compared to Facebook's mulled wine. If Facebook can bond pre-teens to its messaging platform, then those kids will be more likely to stick with Facebook (because that's where their contacts already are) once they hit 13.
To wrap this up, the heavy burden of parenting in today's technology-filled age is that there is no technology that replaces the time-consuming, energy-draining, usually thankless work of actually paying attention to what your kids are doing. This is why the Common Sense Media data that Emily Price cites in Fast Company is terrifying: 93% of 6- to 12-year-olds in the U.S. have access to tablets and smartphones, and 68% have a device of their own.
Parents in the U.S., Canada, and Australia can opt in to message their kids as Santa in a little moment of holiday magic (or, depending on your perspective, holiday lies). The Santa Chat will stay open until January 6 to give your little stinker a chance to say thanks.
Messenger Kids, available now on iOS, is actually a separate app from the Facebook Messenger tool adults use to communicate. Instead, it's built specifically for kids, ages 6 to 13, with Facebook pitching the app as a way to message friends and family walled off from predators and inappropriate content. That's a fairly tall order for any service, particularly Facebook, which has sometimes struggled to keep its main house in order.
After creating a Messenger Kids profile, parents can add contacts directly from their Facebook friends list, including family members and kids of your friends. If your child ever attempts to add a contact, it will be submitted as a request that you can either accept or reject.
More than 100 child advocates, civil society groups, medical experts and other individuals are urging Facebook to discontinue its Messenger app for kids, alleging that the software poses health and development risks to children.
Though YouTube finds itself embroiled in numerous controversies surrounding children, Facebook (META -0.20%) has apparently decided that now would be a good time to roll out a brand-new product geared toward kids: a new Messenger Kids app. It's a version of the social network's popular messaging service that includes numerous parental controls and safeguards that hopes to connect kids to friends and family. Facebook says the app was co-developed with parents, kids, and "expert advisors" who specialize in child development, online safety, and children's media.
It's probably not a coincidence that Facebook also made a separate official blog post discussing online safety and kids. Facebook not only has an opportunity, but an obligation to help parents navigate the increasingly digital world with their kids, according to Facebook's Global Head of Safety Antigone Davis. Children are also increasingly spending time on screens.
At launch, Facebook said it developed Messenger Kids as a way for children to safely use social media online. A child's messenger account is linked to their parent's account, with all "friends" pending parental approval, and with dedicated safety monitoring for inappropriate content. The app is advertisement-free, and Facebook also says it won't send children's data and information to advertisers.
Facebook is forging ahead with its messaging app for kids, despite child experts who have pressed the company to shut it down and others who question Facebook's financial support of some advisers who approved of the app.
"Because they know we opposed their position," said James Steyer, the CEO of Common Sense. The group's stance is that Facebook never should have released a product aimed at kids. "They know very well our positon with Messenger Kids."
Facebook have started developing a messenger app specifically aimed at children aged 13 or under. The staff responsible for developing this brand-new app, had previously worked on LOL, a meme sharing platform.
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