Health Secretary Hits Out at Facebook's New App, Says 'Stay Away From My Kids' (theguardian.com)

Jeremy Hunt has publicly attacked Facebook for releasing a version of its Messenger app aimed at children, and called on the social media company to "stay away from my kids." From a report: The health secretary accused the company of "targeting younger children" after Facebook announced on Monday that it was conducting trials of an app called Messenger Kids in the US, which is designed to be used by pre-teens. He said the company was failing to act responsibly despite having assured the government that it would not target its service at children, who can only use the main social media website if they are over 13.

Comments

Be a parent

[Anonymous Coward]

How about you stop expecting everybody else in the world to do what you want them to do and instead be a parent to your child. Part of that is filtering and explaining the real world around them so as they grow so they don't end up as some special little snowflake thinking the world is responsible to be nice to them and not offer them things that may be detrimental to them.

You need to teach them to make responsible choices and to do that you do need to be there and be a part of their lives, especially at that early age.

Re:Be a parent

[Captain Splendid]

I've long said the death of sane politics in the West is not the fault of liberals or conservatives, but parents.

Re:Be a parent

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Facebook is trying to put pretty intense pressure on children by having all their friends communicate via FB Messenger. Look at the number of people on /. who hate FB, but feel compelled to use it because everyone else is. If you think a parent can stop intense peer pressure... well, I have a bridge to sell you.

Also, children under 13 cannot make responsible choices. I think that's pretty much understood.

Re:Be a parent

[slack_justyb]

I think the troubling thing here is that Facebook did actually go on record saying that they wouldn't do the very thing that they are doing now. If there was some sort of shakeup in management, I'd slightly understand it, but no, literally the people who told everyone that they wouldn't do this, decided to do the thing they said they wouldn't do. To me that's the highlight here. All the other stuff seems to be fluff and opinion, but this is a company that just basically said, "Yeah, we said that. Fuck it."

Re:Be a parent

[e3m4n]

My thoughts were that an app like this pretty much puts a jailbait label on anyone using it. Instead of being an anonymous identity of unknown age, we now have an app specifically targeting 9-12yrs old (despite the rules of facebook saying you must be 13). Regardless of how safe they think they are going to be, pervs are still going to troll, possibly 1 out of 10 of membership. It reminds me of the days of online chat where some friends would tell me that more than half the users in lesbian chat rooms were men pretending to be lesbians. For pre-teens, the only true way to avoid these pitfalls is to deny them access altogether. There is a HUGE difference, cognitively, between a 14yr old teen and a 16yr old teen in terms of mental development. Even a 14yr old has difficulties making wise, responsible, choices when approached online. The ability of a pre-teen successfully avoiding these people are nearly non-existent. I cannot speak to this app, but my own 15yr old has had random strangers of other chat-type applications send pictures of their genitals without even first introducing themselves or any sort of dialog. This was a chat site for kids playing Mindcraft, and the pervs would first join a game and then find out what server everyone was using to chat. The pervs were knowingly picking sites were an over abundant of users were ages 10 - 16.

Re: Be a parent

[e3m4n]

its about FB creating a social media outlet were pedophiles can one-stop-shop building up trust to some unsuspecting victims. This whole sexual harassment/assault/misconduct cleansing is probably just getting started. I have no doubt that there are more than a handful of executives at FB that have probably used coercion, and other tactics, to exercise power over someone, either by making them sexually uncomfortable, to groping, to flashing, and perhaps full-out assault.

Re:Be a parent

[Anonymous Coward]

My thirteen year old is just now going to be getting a cell phone, even though according to her all of her friends have had one for years.

I told her no when she asked over and over again, even with tears. I explained that it was for her good, and that I was not going to throw money around on something like that before she shows the responsibility to handle it properly and follow all the rules. Guess what. It worked. She has shown much greater responsibility, less back talk, and less disrespect to us, her brother, and her friends.

You should try parenting for once, its very satisfying. You are a better parent by telling your kids no sometimes, otherwise you dump your entitled brats into the world unable and unprepared to cope with the reality that its not all going to be handed to them.

Re:Be a parent

[ShanghaiBill]

I've long said the death of sane politics in the West ...

Can you point to a specific point in the past when politics were "sane"?

Re:Be a parent

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Good for you, although I still think 13 is too young for a phone. Doesn't really change that FB is trying to hook all her friends. So when she does get a cell phone, she'll be installing FB, because that's where her friends are.

Again, look at the number of people who feel compelled to use FB to communicate with people and who are adults. Why should people would be happy about that cancer growing into the next generation?

Re: Be a parent

[Actually, I do RTFA]

I agree, but part of letting kids make their own choices is making sure those choices have limited consequences. Given how FB gathers data, manipulates users and the general addictiveness of apps and social media, I'm not sure a FB app is a good set of training wheels.

when we have kids...

[b0s0z0ku]

When we have kids, the rule will be:
(1) No use of Facebook till they're grown up
(2) No pictures/tagging of them on Facebook until the same age

Why? Because children don't have enough knowledge to know whether they want to add their faces and identities to the largest corporate facial recognition database in the world.

Not afraid of "predators", other than the corporate variety.

Re:when we have kids...

[tehcyder]

When we have kids

Translation: I have no fucking idea about how kids actually behave nowadays.

Re:There is no "health secretary" in the US

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Yes, the summary is shit, but we all knew msmash is a moron, and hopefully isn't more than an unpaid intern on the org chart.

Editors, if you're listening, be sure to add "UK" to TFS, and start the lead with that, since no one know (or will care) who "Jeremy Hunt" is unless his middle name is "Mike".

Re:Zee children, boss, zee children!

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Far more importantly, if you hook them early, you don't have to worry about them going to another social network.

Facebook confirmed for CREEPY AS FUCK

[Rick Schumann]

Seriously people how much more invasive creepy shit is the rest of the world going to put up with from Facebook before they say no mas! and walk away from it? Facebook does not enhance your life, 'connect' you with anyone in ways you can't do otherwise, or anything else good, all it does is creep on you, collect data from you to sell to other creepy companies, and otherwise encourage the absolute worst humanity has to offer to come out from under the rocks they've been hiding under. Enough already, let's kill Facebook.

errr... Parenting?

[MMC Monster]

My kids are 11 and 14. My 14y/o just got her first smartphone last month.

It's a couple year old iPhone 6S and it's locked down. Adjusting parental settings allowed me to prevent certain websites and totally removed the app store.

Yes, it's actually locked down more than I would like it to be. But I want her to get used to it as a locked down device with the opportunity to increase her permissions in the future.

Next year I'll probably let my 11y/o get a flip phone.

A question which I haven't heard asked

[plopez]

That question to Zuck and Facebook management is, "Would you allow your children to use this app"?