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“One can only assume that Facebook introduced it to engage users younger and younger,” Radesky said. University of Michigan developmental behavioral pediatrician Jenny Radesky, who co-signed the letter, said she’s never met a parent who was clamoring to get their children onto social media at an earlier age. That sounds like a lukewarm reception at best. It’s been in the top 40 most popular kids’ apps since then. But App Annie, an app analytics firm, said Messenger Kids has been downloaded about 80,000 times on Apple’s iOS devices - iPhones, iPads and the iPod Touch - since it launched on Dec. He said the app gets those younger ones used to Facebook’s platform “and then they transition to the mature version of Facebook.”įacebook wouldn’t answer questions about how popular the messaging app has been. “It looks like something that would appeal to a 6-year-old or 7-year-old,” he said. But Facebook’s new kid-focused app, which features animations and emojis, seems to cater to a younger audience, said Josh Golin, executive director of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. Some companies have offered parental controls as a way of curbing unauthorized preteen use of their platforms. Those rules are based in part on federal law, which prohibits internet companies from collecting personal information on children without their parents’ permission and imposes restrictions on advertising to them. Many preteens have already found their way onto Facebook and more youth-oriented social media platforms such as Snapchat and Facebook’s own Instagram, despite internal rules that require users to be at least 13 years old. A chorus of other early employees and investors piled on with similar criticisms. Sean Parker, Facebook’s first president, said late last year that the social media platform exploits “vulnerability in human psychology” to addict users. The social media giant added that it consulted with parenting experts and families, and said “there is no advertising in Messenger Kids.”Ī variety of experts and technology insiders have begun questioning the effects smartphones and social media apps are having on people’s health and mental well-being - whether kids, teens or adults. In a statement, Facebook said on Monday that the app “helps parents and children to chat in a safer way,” and emphasized that parents are “always in control” of their kids’ activity. “It appeals primarily to children who otherwise would not have their own social media accounts.” Another passage criticized Facebook for “targeting younger children with a new product.” “Messenger Kids is not responding to a need - it is creating one,” the letter states. Led by the Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, the group includes psychiatrists, pediatricians, educators and the children’s music singer Raffi Cavoukian.
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The social media giant has said it fills “a need for a messaging app that lets kids connect with people they love but also has the level of control parents want.” But critics see the move as a way for Facebook to lure in a younger audience before they could move on to a rival service such as Snapchat.Ī group of 100 experts, advocates and parenting organizations is contesting Facebook’s claims of filling a need.