Facebook has launched a free messaging app, Messenger Kids, for children under 13 who aren’t technically allowed to have their own accounts (although, as the AP notes, many do). Only parents can add “friends” to their child’s app, which will be an extension of the parent’s account.
Children’s psychology expert Kristelle Lavallee tells the AP that Messenger Kids is a “useful tool” that “makes parents the gatekeeper.” As to whether Messenger Kids is a ploy to rope in customers at a long age, Family Online Safety Institute CEO Stephen Balkam says, “That train has left the station.”
Source: AP