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Facebook Launches New Messenger App for Young Kids -- What Could Possibly Go Wrong? (gizmodo.com)
More than one billion people use Facebook's Messenger app to communicate every month. Now the social juggernaut is going after the younger audience. On Monday, it announced Messenger Kids, a standalone mobile app designed for children age 13 and under. From a report: The app, Messenger Kids, is a messaging service that gives parents authority over who their kids can chat with. Once a parent adds someone to their child's contact list through the main Facebook app, kids can video chat as well as send photos, videos, and texts, or pick something from "a library of kid-appropriate and specially chosen GIFs, frames, stickers, masks, and drawing tools," according to Facebook's announcement post. [...] A Facebook spokesperson said in an email to Gizmodo, "We've built automated systems that can detect things like nudity, violence, and child exploitative imagery to help limit that content from being shared on Messenger Kids. We also have blocking and reporting mechanisms, and have a dedicated team of human reviewers that review all content that is reported."
Bottom line, don't leave your kids unsupervised with anonymous strangers.
Would YOU leave a kid alone with Mark Zuckerberg?
He has already raped the internet.
It is truly a mystery as to how some people think they can take a product, which should only be consumed by adults, and attempt to reconstitute it into a form which is acceptable to be consumed by children.
Hey Facebook, they are kids, leave them alone!
Caution: Contents under pressure
Mine certainly don't.
They HAVE a Facebook account, but they all use Instagram and Snapchat. The Facebook account is just for show for parents.
They know getting them early is a nice way to get people comfortable (aka hooked). As bad as big tobacco?
Well, I can't wait for one of my kid's friends to ask for him to get onto Facebook so he can message him. HAHAHA, NO.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
(reposting as myself to get some mod points)
My kids can message all they want with people I approve of. How do I enforce this? All messaging happens through my phone while I'm present (Facetime with relatives, text messages to plan playdates, photo sharing, etc).
Anything else that tries to set up messaging accounts for my kids? If messaging/chat features can't be disabled, my kids can't use it.
-Chris
Isn't it unfair that adults get to have all sorts of cool stuff, but children don't? That is about to change with the "Kiddo Card". Its a credit card for kids, and it can do EVERYTHING an adult credit card can do. What's the difference from adult credit cards you ask? NOTHING! For the first time, kids get to play on EQUAL ground with the grownups. Kiddo Card - for a better, fairer future for all our children!
Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
We've built automated systems that can detect things like nudity, violence, and child exploitative imagery
Considering that all three of those are illegal... how would such a system be built?
Letting kids stream videos and send photos... Whoever came up with that option at Facebook is a complete moron. Simple text with a profanity filter that replicates all conversations to the parent account for review is probably fine, but photos and video are just too easy to get in trouble with.
Just wait til one kid sends another a nude selfie, now you have a real problem.
IMHO smart phones (note there are still dumb cell phones to be had for kids) and social media should be regulated like tobacco and alcohol and should not be available to kids under 18. There are all kinds of studies that are showing the detrimental effect that both are having on young kids.
If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
They're not going to have the kids send nude pictures for age verification...
This is likely just to comply with the new Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) that all US websites now have to follow. If the user enters their birth date (most Facebook users do, for reminders) then the company knows the user is under 13 and must then comply with a long list of new regulations.
I have no problem with a messenging app for young kids, but if they claim to protect against nudity/violence/exploitation they are opening themselves to lawsuits when those things occur. It's too bad, since the system is probably better than nothing. But this is land of lawsuits.