Messenger Kids is the app that Facebook has developed aimed at helping kids stay connected with their friends, but will a lot of parental controls and supervision. The Messenger Kids is being rolled out in 70 countries including India. The app has been introduced in the US in 2017.
The highlights of the Messenger Kids app are it allows video chat and messaging by the kids. The current stay-at-home situation has resulted in children needing the appropriate online tools to keep focused with their educational needs and even those children not much exposed to such communication media are now required to adapt to them. Messenger Kids may facilitate this by easing the children into the ecosystem by using the app for chatting and other fun activities.
In terms of protecting the children from any kind of harm due to this internet exposure, Facebook says it has carried out consultations with Facebook’s Youth Advisors team of experts in online safety, child development and media. Safer Internet Day creator Janice Richardson and children’s rights group Agent of Change Foundation chairman Wayne Chau have also been consulted with to ensure that there are no gaps in the format and regulations for using the Messenger Kids app by the appropriate age group children. These are as applicable to the children-parent relationships in the US.
Some of the other features Facebook has added while releasing the global version of the Messenger Kid app include supervised friending and giving the option in the hands of the parents to nominate another adult to help with managing the way the child used the app. These have been included after the feedback received from parents in the US.
The way the supervised friending feature works is the children can accept or reject the friends’ requests. A separate message will land on the parents’ messenger informing about the development. If the child has accepted a friend request and does not approve of it, he or she can override it via the parents dashboard. This feature will be new to the US users too.
The other one to select another adult to manage the child’s account and help them navigate through the app is also part of the learnings from the US. This is being compared to a teacher being the intermediary between the parent and the child in imparting education.
In the Indian context, there is always the worry that the rapid growth in the number of children being exposed to the internet brings along with it several unwanted risks, including sexual exploitation. UNICEF itself has admitted that the internet is as unsafe for children as the real world is and steps need to be taken to protect them. There is already a stringent law the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, to prevent children from being exploited. There is a proposal to include online crimes also in this.