Experts Say Facebook Should Get Rid Of It's App For Kids

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A group letter was sent from the "Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood" to Mark Zuckerberg urging him to discontinue "Messenger Kids" a social media app for children under 13. "Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood" is a group of 100 experts, advocates and parenting organizations. Facebook said Monday that the app "helps parents and children to chat in a safer way," and emphasized that parents are "always in control" of their kids' activity.

To be brief I agree with the ccfc's opinions. We have covered many stories about the dangers of social media when it comes to teens, going as far as 13 year olds going to "Smartphone Rehab." I don't think getting even younger people addicted to devices (more so than they already are), and exposing them to the proven problems of social media is a good idea.

Younger children are simply not ready to have social media accounts. They are not old enough to navigate the complexities of online relationships, which often lead to misunderstandings and conflicts even among more mature users. They also do not have a fully developed understanding of privacy, including what’s appropriate to share with others and who has access to their conversations, pictures, and videos.
 
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Remove all the hearts, likes, thumbsup, thumbsdown, and so on reactions from social media and you will have already done a world of good. It's detrimental to children to indoctrinate them into the concept of "don't worry about posting your own passions, all that matters is whether or not the faceless internet approves". Social media quickly becomes a feedback loop of everyone doing the same shit, posing for photos the same way, and liking the same music/movies. Children today are more aware/sensitive of others' reactions in a way humans weren't 20 years ago. High school was already segregated by cliches of friends that all dressed the same, talked the same, listened to the same music, went to the same parties (or not :whistle:). The internet has just made that grown into a global and more homogenized set of cliches that kids feel they need to be accepted by to reinforce their self-worth.
 
Kids already don’t have access to Facebook and won’t till they are 18 and out of the house.
 
It used to be that if a product was marketed at children, it had to be able to assure the public that nothing in that products nature would harm the child and wouldn't easily lead them down the path to harm.

When I was a kid you didn't let kids in online chat rooms. Parents thought twice about even letting them play games with chat between players.

Where the hell are we today?

What do parents THINK happens when random people communicate online?

It's a special kind of creepy when you consider the parallels of letting your 10 year old roam around a downtown park, while you are on the other side of the park, and they talk to whoever they want for as long as they want.

That's pretty much what happens when your 10 year old encounters anyone on social media or online game chats for long periods. They're not all other 10 year olds. Most aren't.

Inappropriate, creepy, bad idea pick your description.

Facebook and every other social media site should be banning minor's accounts instantly. But then, how would they raise another generation of users?
 
DedEmbryonicCe11 said:
Remove all the hearts, likes, thumbsup, thumbsdown, and so on reactions from social media and you will have already done a world of good. It's detrimental to children to indoctrinate them into the concept of "don't worry about posting your own passions, all that matters is whether or not the faceless internet approves". Social media quickly becomes a feedback loop of everyone doing the same shit, posing for photos the same way, and liking the same music/movies. Children today are more aware/sensitive of others' reactions in a way humans weren't 20 years ago. High school was already segregated by cliches of friends that all dressed the same, talked the same, listened to the same music, went to the same parties (or not :whistle:). The internet has just made that grown into a global and more homogenized set of cliches that kids feel they need to be accepted by to reinforce their self-worth.
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Two big thumbs up! I used to only patronize sites that didn't do likes, but that became impossible...now I'm a like whore. How much worse would it be for a not yet developed brain? This is just greed run amok. Yet another reason to never do Facebook.
 
Gotta groom them young to get them hooked onto your platform and, more important, your social policies.
 
steakman1971 said:
My kids are not allowed to use any social media. They are 10 & 11 - no way. They've asked. "My friends are using it" - don't care.
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So do they have accounts using their friends computers you don't know about? Seems like it could be a problem, esp. since you wouldn't know so you can't monitor it. Glad I don't have kids.
Which makes me wonder what, if anything, does FB do to stop kids from having accounts, require a credit card or something? If it's just the ask for a birthdate, well even a math challenged 7 year old can use a calculator ap.
 
WhoMe said:
So do they have accounts using their friends computers you don't know about? Seems like it could be a problem, esp. since you wouldn't know so you can't monitor it. Glad I don't have kids.
Which makes me wonder what, if anything, does FB do to stop kids from having accounts, require a credit card or something? If it's just the ask for a birthdate, well even a math challenged 7 year old can use a calculator ap.
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They could have accounts outside of the house. Their devices here - my router has a whitelist of sites their MAC addresses are allowed to visit. Facebook isn't on the list.
My oldest daughter does have an old phone - I use a service called Circle to control that device.
Kids can be a pain in the ass - no doubt :)
 
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I'm not sure I understand the concern. It's just a chat program, and the parents have to sign off on everyone the child chats with. The intention is to allow them to communicate with family, but they don't need a phone number or a Facebook profile, and there is no real "profile". They can't see Facebook news feeds and there are no statuses. This basically seems like modern day AIM, which I had growing up, except it's even more restricted.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/04/facebook-messenger-kids/
 
Yes, teach the kids that FaceBook is a wonderful, caring, looking out for their interests company. Then you have them for life. FaceBook is a drug and its very addictive. Being addictive means it should be held back the same as some other forms of drugsl. No Facebook til your of legal age. Ever notice the interactions of the kids in the electronic age is similar to other addicts.
 
My initial reaction was, "Agreed. Hit the delete button on that shit post-haste." Then I started to think about it. Most people in this world could be considered as reasonable human beings, extending this logic to parents I would even go as far to say that parents are even more cautious, wise and consider their children's welfare as paramount in all things. So... who are we left with that would allow their children access to what most of us reasonable human beings would consider an inappropriate service for it's target age group? I would gather imbecilic parents to be a portion, but you also have guardians that could be completely clueless about technology. For instance, 9 year old Bobby McDrop_Tables Hacker-in-Making, who's very tech savvy for his age but due to unfortunate circumstances lives with his Grandma who regards tweets as the name of her bird watching club. Bobby may be smart but he's only 9 and while he's got one over on Grandma by persuading her to grant him access to his new homework tool Messenger Kids, he's likely not going to be experienced enough to realize that TubeSnake9000 wants to show him more than just his Minecraft castle and lego dimensions set.

So, while I feel that parents are the first line of defense and we should stop all this banning and removal of things in life because it could be dangerous, I suppose we have to make sure little Bobby McDrop_Tables grows up into the fine specimen of PoS he will become when he cracks into Equifax and plasters your identity all over kingdom come. ... and I think to myself, what a wonderful world.
 
Social media definitely has many negative effects on younger age groups, as shown by all the crazy internet trends (tide pods, etc.) as well as promoting addictive tendencies. Children/teens are easily influenced and often misled online, sometimes taken advantage of due to lack of experience or education and peer pressure. I see them constantly taking pictures and documenting their lives, sharing too much information and disregarding privacy. However, this is the age of technology, and it's certainly hard to ban social media from children completely (depends on how strict or educative the parents are and other factors). It's a step in the right direction to limit or get rid of these sort of apps directed at children and educate kids about the dangers of social media.
 
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