INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Facebook is making it easier for kids to add their friends on its under-13 chat app, Messenger Kids
Starting today, the company is rolling out a new feature that will allow kids to request parents& approval of new contacts
To use the feature, parents will turn on a setting that creates a four-word passphrase that used generate these contact requests, the
company says.
Parents can opt to use this feature, which is not on by default.
Once enabled, Facebook will randomly generate a four-word
phrase that uniquely assigned to each child
When the child wants to add a friend to their app contacts list in the future, they will show this phrase to the friend to enter in their
own app.
Both parents will then receive a contact request from their child & and both have to approve the request before the kids can start
In other words, this doesn''t represent a loosening of the rules around parental approvals & all contact requests still require parents&
explicit attention and confirmation, as before.
However, it does make it easier for kids to friend one another when their parents aren''t
Facebook friends themselves
That been an issue with the app for some time, and one Facebook first started to address in May when it made a change that finally no longer
required parents to be friends, too.
While most parents will at least want to know who their child is texting with, there are plenty of
times when parents are friendly with someone on a more casual basis & like through the child school or their extracurricular activities
But just because two people are neighbors or fellow soccer moms and dads, that doesn''t necessarily mean they&re also Facebook friends.
The
change introduced in May allowed parents to do a search for the child friend parents, then invite them to the app so the kids could connect
But this still required parents to take the initial steps (at the urging of the child, of course)
It was also confusing at times, we found when we tried it for ourselves & some parents we connected with couldn''t figure out how the
approval process worked, for example.
That being said, it may have helped to give the app install base a big boost, along with its expansion
outside the United States According to data from Sensor Tower, Messenger Kids saw a sizable increase in installs in the beginning of early
June and it has just now passed 1.4 million downloads across both iOS and Android
In addition, its daily downloads are around 3x what they were at the end of May.
The passphrase solution will make things a bit easier on
parents, because contact requests will be initiated by the kids
Parents will only have to tap a big &Approve& button to confirm the request (or deny it, if the request is inappropriate for some
reason.)
The four-word passphrase will only be visible to the child in the Messenger Kids app, and to the parent in their Parent Portal.
It
worth noting that Facebook opted for a passphrase instead of a scannable QR code, as is common in other messaging apps including Facebook
Messenger, Snapchat and Twitter, for instance
Facebook says this is so kids can exchange the passphrase without the device being present.
Messenger Kids is a controversial app, but its
adoption is growing, the data indicates
Parents have been starved for an app like this & one allowing for conversation monitoring (you just install your own copy) and contact
Whether this will actually indoctrinate a new generation of Facebook or Messenger users is more questionable
It likely that when kids outgrow Messenger Kids, they&ll still be switching over to Facebook Instagram and Snapchat instead.
The passphrase
feature is rolling out starting today on the Messenger Kids mobile app.
