Facebook Messenger Kids: now with more "Facebook" and less "Messenger"
Issue #3
It was an under-the-radar change with a one-time notification sent to parents. Back in September, Facebook Messenger Kids rolled out an update to their that lets young users see who their friends are friends with. The update rolled out automatically, with a note to parents saying that this new feature would make it "easier for your children's friends to connect with each other." With this one small change, Facebook Messenger Kids went from being a messenger to a full-fledged social network. And what could possibly be a better training ground for the company's adult platform?
I've always been wary of Facebook, so this shift wasn't a huge surprise to me. I believe that their number one goal has always been to have as many daily active users as possible. They want adult users to spend their time on the platform because that gives them the chance to show ads and generate revenue. And while it's true that Messenger Kids is ad-free, it's not a huge logical leap to assume that this kids' product is part of a strategy—a long game to train the next generation of adult users.
But even in the immediate term, the update to the kids' platform is troubling for a few reasons: first, Facebook made the feature automatic. Parents need to opt in to allow their kids to be visible to their friend's contacts, but by default, kids can now see who their friends are connected with—and experience all the FOMO that goes along with that. And second, the change makes it easier for kids to connect with people they don't know. So now, Facebook Messenger Kids starts to look less like a messenger and more like a Facebook training ground for children. I started my company because I believed it was only a matter of time before Facebook's focus on growth-above-all-else would show up in the kids product—and this change only reaffirms that. I wanted my kids to have an alternative, and I suspected there were probably others that did as well.
Facebook's myopic push for growth has led to lots of undesirable outcomes already. Their hunger for data, coupled with the way they prioritize advertisers over users has landed them in scandal after scandal, and I believe that companies that are building products for kids need to hold themselves to a higher standard. They should always be striving to give children the best of technology, without exposure to the worst of it—but based on Facebook's track record, I think it's safe to say that's not a priority for them.
A deeper dive
Here are a few helpful resources in case you want to really dig into today's topic:
Back in 2019, a technical error on Facebook Messenger Kids let young users connect with strangers. This time, however, Facebook has intentionally opened up the Messenger Kids network to encourage kids to amass more contacts.
When the company first launched its platform for the under-13 crowd, many people voiced their concern about putting their children on Facebook Messenger Kids. The author of this op-ed in the MIT Technology Review hits the nail on the head with this quote: "It’s good that children have a chance to grow gradually into social apps, but I don’t necessarily want Facebook to be the teacher."
TL;DR
Too long; didn't read. It shouldn't be a full-time job to keep up on industry news, so here is a mercifully quick summary of some notable developments:
It used to be that case that if you switched your personal Instagram (IG) account to a business account, you had to display your email address and phone number. Well, it turns out a lot of children opted to switch their accounts, essentially exposing their information to the internet. That issue is at the center of a new investigation of Instagram's handling of kids' data in the EU. Ireland's Data Protection Commission is looking into whether Instagram has adequate protections and/or restrictions on the platform for children. If they're found to be in violation of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), they could face steep fines. But then again, large tech platforms are used to those, and generally, just consider them the cost of doing business.
For a lot of families, the pandemic led to an uptick in technology use. According to a recent study, 42% of families have been using tech together more often over the last three months, including activities like playing online games together (34%), watching tutorials (51%), streaming videos (41%) or online shopping (36%). And according to the same report, children are driving a boom in smart speakers, which has Carolyn Bunting, the chief executive of Internet Matters, concerned: "The home is becoming less and less private and we need to think about what data is being shared. We need to make sure we’re not sleepwalking into a world where we’re just giving away all of this information without thinking about where it’s going, who’s holding it or how it’s being used.”
And lastly
Here are a few more pieces of original writing from me and my team—just in case you're keen for more:
Should tech companies be paying us for our data? This is a question I posed in my most recent article for the Forbes Technology Council. I crunched some numbers, and all of us could be in for a sizeable if hypothetical payout.
What is Discord? If you've been wondering this lately, you're not alone. Kinzoo wrote this handy article that explains all the things parents need to know about the popular chat platform.