Facebook Messenger Kids App Is 'Irresponsible,' Groups Say
Around 100 kid advocates and experts are urging Facebook to discontinue its new Messenger Kids app over concerns that it volition "undermine children'due south healthy evolution."
In a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday, nineteen groups — including the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, ACLU of Massachusetts, and Parents Beyond America — chosen the company'south move to launch the app "irresponsible," particularly in lite of research indicating that excessive utilise of social media is detrimental to children and teens.
"Younger children are simply non fix to have social media accounts," the groups wrote. "They are not quondam enough to navigate the complexities of online relationships, which often lead to misunderstandings and conflicts fifty-fifty amongst more mature users. They also do not take a fully adult agreement of privacy, including what's appropriate to share with others and who has access to their conversations, pictures, and videos."
In their letter, the groups cited research indicating that social media use by teens is linked to "significantly higher rates of depression," as well as torso-epitome issues and unhealthy sleep habits. Plus, inquiry shows that l percent of adolescents already study feeling addicted to their phones — a trouble Messenger Kids will likely "exacerbate," they predicted.
"The app's overall impact on families and society is likely to be negative, normalizing social media utilize among young children and creating peer force per unit area for kids to sign up for their outset business relationship," they wrote.
Introduced last month for iOS devices, Messenger Kids is Facebook's commencement app built specifically for children. The advertising-free app tin can exist installed on a kid's Apple smartphone or tablet, but controlled from a parent'southward Facebook account. When they open upward the app, kids see a list of approved contacts they tin can call for a one-on-one or group video chat. The app offers virtual masks, emoji, and sound furnishings plus a library of "kid-advisable" GIFs, frames, stickers, and drawing tools.
Facebook tells PCMag it has no plans to discontinue the Messenger Kids app any fourth dimension before long.
"We proceed to exist focused on making Messenger Kids be the best experience it can be for families," the company wrote. "We have been very clear that at that place is no advertising in Messenger Kids."
The social network said it adult the app with the assistance of "an advisory committee of parenting and developmental experts," including the "families themselves" and the Parent Teacher Association.
"Since we launched in Dec nosotros've heard from parents around the country that Messenger Kids has helped them stay in touch with their children and has enabled their children to video chat with fun masks with family members near and far," the visitor wrote. "For example, we've heard stories of parents working nighttime shifts being able read bedtime stories to their children, and moms who travel for work getting daily updates from their kids while they're away."
But the Campaign for a Commercial-Complimentary Childhood and other child advocates argue that there are already enough of ways kids can stay in touch with faraway relatives – from using a parent'southward Skype account, to just picking up the phone. "Messenger Kids is not responding to a need – information technology is creating one," the groups wrote.
Facebook says Messenger Kids lets kids "chat in a safer way," since parents can control their messaging contacts and interactions. For more, check out PCMag's easily on with Messenger Kids.
The criticism of Messenger Kids comes later on Zuckerberg made it his 2022 mission to set the social networking site he started. "The world feels anxious and divided, and Facebook has a lot of work to practise," the Facebook CEO wrote in a mail early this month. He pointed to the abuse and hate on the platform, along with strange attempts to spread misinformation, and social networking'due south effect on a person'southward well beingness.
In December, Facebook acknowledged that passively reading your news feed isn't always good for your mental wellness. Those who interact with posts (commenting, liking, etc.) tend to feel improve about themselves than those who just scroll and scroll, the company institute.
YouTube, meanwhile, has also run into trouble with YouTube Kids, where advocates were concerned about ads on the service for products like Coca-Cola and Oreos.
About Angela Moscaritolo
Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/news/19351/facebook-messenger-kids-app-is-irresponsible-groups-say
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