Child Experts: Just Say 'No' To Facebook's Kids App (apnews.com)

A group letter sent Tuesday to CEO Mark Zuckerberg argues that younger children -- the app is intended for those under 13 -- aren't ready to have social media accounts, navigate the complexities of online relationships or protect their own privacy. From a report: Facebook launched the free Messenger Kids app in December, pitching it as a way for children to chat with family members and parent-approved friends. It doesn't give kids separate Facebook or Messenger accounts. Rather, the app works as an extension of a parent's account, and parents get controls such as the ability to decide who their kids can chat with. 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 a group of 100 experts, advocates and parenting organizations is contesting those claims. 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. "Messenger Kids is not responding to a need -- it is creating one," the letter states. "It appeals primarily to children who otherwise would not have their own social media accounts."

Comments

Title adjustment

[thegreatbob]

Experts: Just Say 'No' To Facebook

Facebook = Cigarette companies

[93 Escort Wagon]

They’re basically now at the point where they’ve mostly addicted the older generation, so to maintain long-term profits they need to invent ways to hook the younger generation before they get old enough to think for themselves and realize that Facebook is dumb (and mainly populated with old people nowadays).

Re:who controls?

[NewWorldDan]

We were setting up our new XBox and my kid said, "I'm going to say on my account that I'm 21 so I can get M rated games." The fact is, by the time kids are 10, they have figured out that they can watch anything or use any service just by changing their birthday.

Most kids aren't that interested in Facebook. That's something that their parents and grandparents use. They've cobbled together their own social media experience with platforms that I've never heard of. Some may want to be on Facebook, but apparently not my kid or any of her friends. That's something that Facebook is genuinely worried about. Their success is mostly built on inertia. If they don't grab the next generation early, those kids will go do something else and soon Facebook is reduced to MySpace.

Its called Grooming

[Stan92057]

FB is using this program to farm/groom users of tomorrow..Just like a pedos would do,offer free candy,toys and ..... would love to read the TOS and what data they collect too.