Messenger Kids, quoted from The Verge page, was introduced since last year for children under 13 to enjoy the experience of exchanging messages under parental supervision. Facebook added a number of new features for Messenger Kids to be managed by two people, previously only one. In addition, for parents who create accounts for their children, the app provides guidance for adults and children to use the app wisely, for example by reminding them to be polite and maintain security. Messenger Kid is free of ads and children do not need to use real names in the app. Facebook also filters out stickers and filters in the app to make it child-friendly. This application was launched when protests from experts in the field of child growth, health, educators to parents, although Facebook has stated they meet the rules of child safety in the virtual world Children’s Online Privacy and Protection Act (COPPA). Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood wrote an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, claiming “children are not ready to have social media accounts” and “not mature enough to follow the complexity of cyber relationships”. Though this app isn’t available for download in Nigeria… do you think we need to expose our younger teenagers to social media even though Mark declares this app safe to use?
