Facebook is coming for your kids.
The social media giant is launching a messaging app for children to chat with their parents and with friends approved by their parents.
The free app is aimed at kids under 13, who cansa国际传媒檛 yet have their own accounts under Facebooksa国际传媒檚 rules, though they often do.
Messenger Kids comes with a slew of controls for parents. The service wonsa国际传媒檛 let children add their own friends or delete messages sa国际传媒� only parents can do that. Kids donsa国际传媒檛 get a separate Facebook or Messenger account; rather, itsa国际传媒檚 an extension of a parentsa国际传媒檚 account. Messenger Kids came out Monday in the U.S. as an app for Apple devices sa国际传媒� the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Versions for Android and Amazonsa国际传媒檚 tablets are coming later.
A KIDS-FOCUSED EXPERIENCE
While children do use messaging and social media apps designed for teenagers and adults, those services arensa国际传媒檛 built for them, said Kristelle Lavallee, a childrensa国际传媒檚 psychology expert who advised Facebook on designing the service.
sa国际传媒淭he risk of exposure to things they were not developmentally prepared for is huge,sa国际传媒� she said.
Messenger Kids, meanwhile, sa国际传媒渋s a result of seeing what kids like,sa国际传媒� which is images, emoji and the like. Face filters and playful masks can be distracting for adults, Lavallee said, but for kids who are just learning how to form relationships and stay in touch with parents digitally, they are ways to express themselves.
Lavallee, who is content strategist at the Center on Media and Child Health at Boston Childrensa国际传媒檚 Hospital and Harvard University, called Messenger Kids a sa国际传媒渦seful toolsa国际传媒� that sa国际传媒渕akes parents the gatekeepers.sa国际传媒� But she said that while Facebook made the app sa国际传媒渨ith the best of intentions,sa国际传媒� itsa国际传媒檚 not yet known how people will actually use it.
As with other tools Facebook has released in the past, intentions and real-world use do not always match up. Facebooksa国际传媒檚 live video streaming feature, for example, has been used for plenty of innocuous and useful things, but also to stream crimes and suicides.
HOOKED ON FACEBOOK
Is Messenger Kids simply a way for Facebook to rope in the young ones?
Stephen Balkam, CEO of the non-profit Family Online Safety Institute, said sa国际传媒渢hat train has left the station.sa国际传媒�
Federal law prohibits internet companies from collecting personal information on kids under 13 without their parentssa国际传媒� 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 parentssa国际传媒� approval.
He said Facebook is trying to deal with the situation pragmatically by steering young Facebook users to a service designed for them.
MARKETING MATTERS
Facebook said Messenger Kids wonsa国际传媒檛 show ads or collect data for marketing, though it will collect some data it says are necessary to run the service. Facebook also said it wonsa国际传媒檛 automatically move users to the regular Messenger or Facebook when they get old enough, though the company might give them the option to move contacts to Messenger down the line.
James Steyer, CEO of the kids-focused non-profit group Common Sense, said that while he liked the idea of a messaging app that requires parental sign-ups, many questions remain. Among them: Will it always remain ad-free, and will parents get ads based on the service?
sa国际传媒淲hy should parents simply trust that Facebook is acting in the best interest of kids?sa国际传媒� Steyer said in a statement. sa国际传媒淲e encourage Facebook to clarify their policies from the start so that it is perfectly clear what parents are signing up for.sa国际传媒�
