Linked – Facebook Launches Messenger Kids for Children

“Facebook has launched a new standalone version of Messenger aimed at kids. And it is, rather inevitably, called Messenger Kids. Messenger Kids is designed for children aged between six and 12, with parents being placed in charge of setting up and managing their children’s access.”

This is interesting. On one hand, we know there are a lot of kids under 13 who are signing up for Facebook accounts who shouldn’t be. So it’s nice that there is an alternative tool that kids can use to communicate, that still requires their parents full involvement. (Your kids can only add other kids as contacts, and only if their parents are also connected on Facebook and have giving approval, for example.)

On the other hand, this also seems to be a reach into childhood to get kids committed to using Facebook at an even younger age, which seems a little sketchy.

Of course with this much parental involvement required, it’s also possible that kids will simply choose not to use it, opting to try using other tools with little parental control to communicate with each other. So it’s not like you don’t have to keep an eye on their electronics anyway!

Would you let your kids use Messenger for Kids? Why or why not?

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/facebook-launches-messenger-kids-children/

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