![]() ![]() ![]() With Messenger Kids, according to the article from Fast Company, "Kids have access to a number of kid-approved GIFs, masks, emojis, and sound effects also available to play with that were designed to be appropriate to youngsters in the 6-11 age range." Inviting a notification-filled interruption machine like Messenger Kids into the lives of children impairs their ability to focus and think at the exact time when they are building critical skills that will serve them for the subsequent several decades of their lives. It's not about the content: it's about the container. It has everything to do with the fact of the messages themselves. The danger of Messenger Kids has nothing to do with the content of the messages or the senders of the messages. This is like saying, "well, those pesky kids are going to take heroin anyway, but at least we can control the dose!" He said Facebook is trying to deal with the situation pragmatically by steering young Facebook users to a service designed for them.īalkam 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. Even so, Balkam said millions of kids under 13 are already on Facebook, with or without their parents' approval. This is why Facebook and many other social media companies prohibit younger kids from joining. Stephen Balkam, CEO of the nonprofit Family Online Safety Institute, said "that train has left the station."įederal law prohibits internet companies from collecting personal information on kids under 13 without their parents' permission and imposes restrictions on advertising to them. Is Messenger Kids simply a way for Facebook to rope in the young ones? The thrust of the articles all focus on what Facebook is trying to achieve with Messenger Kids this sounded like they were inspired by a press release, which a little rapid searching confirmed.Įlsewhere online, an article from the Associated Press included a more skeptical note: 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. 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 is not an isolated case: Fast Company, Digital Journal, VentureBeat, TheWrap and other publications all uncritically accepted Facebook's narrative. ![]()
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