Pull the plug. That’s the advice experts give about a new messaging app. Facebook hopes to hook youngsters on its Messenger Kids. Company officials say the app meets a need. But others are riled up that the social networking service is targeting kids.
Federal law already bans collecting personal information on children under 13 without parental permission. The law also limits advertising to them. That’s why platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram say users must be at least 13 to participate. But many youngsters break the rules. They sign up dishonestly with a fake birthdate.
Messenger Kids offers an honest option for those young sneaks and others their age—sort of. Facebook pitches the free app as a way for children to chat with parent-approved contacts. Messenger Kids doesn’t provide separate Facebook or Messenger accounts. Instead, it works as a part of a parent’s account, so parents can control whom their kids chat with.
The social media giant says Messenger Kids is a good thing, then. 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.”
University of Michigan behavioral pediatrician Jenny Radesky denies that need. She co-signed a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about the app. Radesky says she’s never met parents who were clamoring to get their children onto social media at an earlier age.
Other experts and advocates say Messenger Kids isn’t responding to a need but “creating one.” Sean Parker, Facebook’s first president, admits Facebook misuses its knowledge of human weaknesses to addict users.
Experts say most kids are too trusting to protect their privacy online. That means most children under 13 just aren’t ready for social media accounts.
Josh Golin, executive director of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood believes Facebook’s kid-focused app caters to a quite-young audience with its animations and emojis. “It looks like something that would appeal to a 6-year-old or 7-year-old,” Golin says, not 11- or 12-year-olds.
The critics aren’t the only ones concerned about youthful eyes and minds. God didn’t make us to waste our days. As the Psalmist says of the purpose of his life: “I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.” (Psalm 101:3)
Even if the app gives parents control over who kids talk too, extended screen time of any kind may be problematic. With so much constant usage, experts and tech insiders have begun questioning the effects of smartphones and social media apps on people’s health and mental well-being—kids, teens, or adults.
