"We felt it was important to make sure parents knew what happened so they could talk to their children about online safety," a Facebook representative confirmed to Romper. Facebook addressed the glitch with parents in a message and fixed the privacy flaw within the app, The Verge reported. "We regularly consult with child development experts, parents, and safety experts on new features, and talked to those key stakeholders about these updates while we built them."Īnother concern about Messenger Kids is a known hiccup within the app in July 2019 that allowed kids to add secondary friends, or friends of friends, to a group chat setting without their parents' approval of those friends.
"We built Messenger Kids after talking to thousands of parents and parenting experts to give kids and parents an age-appropriate, parentally-supervised platform for messaging friends and family," a Facebook representative tells Romper. The site's review expressed concern that this could lead to increased social media use and impact a child's health and well-being. Basically, the data collected when your kids use the app can be used to create targeted ads and features later on if they sign up for Facebook or Instagram. The media group cites Facebook's data collection as the main issue within the app for parents to consider. Anything going on that promotes bullying, cursing, or fear-inducing anxiety needs to stop, but your child needs to foster healthy friendships."Īlthough the Messenger Kids app is intended for kids ages 6 to 12, media experts at Common Sense Media have rated the app best for ages 13 and up, and Parent reviews on Common Sense Media rated the app appropriate for kids ages 9 and older. "You can always monitor conversations and review them. "Only approve children you have met in person or that your child promises is a positive influence," Healy tells Romper.
"Stay engaged, informed, and observant so you can emotionally help and coach your child," she says. tells Romper that parents should also pay attention to how their kids feel and act after their interactions within the app. Parenting coach and author of The Emotionally Healthy Child, Maureen Healy, PhD. "Having a monitoring service like Bark installed on kids’ devices can give parents the extra confidence they need (especially right now) by doing a lot of the work for them and only alerting them to issues of concern," she tells Romper. Another important safety feature of the app ensures that kids cannot delete messages, so parents can actively monitor their kids' complete conversations.Īlthough Messenger Kids allows parents to monitor their child's conversations, Jordan says an extra layer of protection can be helpful in terms of screen time management.
#Facebook messenger app for kids code
Messenger Kids will generate a private code kids can share with their friends if they want to connect with each other in the app, but parents must approve these contacts before they can be added to the contact list. To use Messenger Kids, parents must connect the app to their personal Facebook account (kids do not need a Facebook account to use the app, as users must be at least 13 years old). She also recommends making sure the apps your kids use are appropriate, and that you're educated in data tracking, who your kids interact with, and in-app marketing tactics "to avoid unwanted purchases made by cyber-savvy kids." "Not all apps require a minimum age, so parents should look into each app their kids are using," Jordan says. Titania Jordan, Chief Parenting Officer at Bark, an award-winning monitoring service that helps parents keep kids safe online, tells Romper that although messaging apps can be fun for kids, parents should be paying attention, too. If you decide to let your kids use the app, experts recommend paying close attention to who your child interacts with and what they talk about. Kids can also connect with the friends that they're used to seeing at school every day. With Messenger Kids, kids can video chat and send messages, emojis, and stickers to stay in touch. One app that can help keep kids in touch with loved ones is Messenger Kids on Facebook, but, like all technology, there are pros and cons each parent will need to weigh to decide if the app is appropriate for their kids. Keeping kids connected with friends and family over long distances can be tough.
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