Facebook announced new tools and features for parents to control their childrens’ experiences in the Messenger Kids app, in an effort to increase online safety on the service.
Parents will be able to see recent contacts and chat history of their children, along with a log of photos and videos in their inbox which they can delete if deemed inappropriate.
Other features will provide parents with access to a list of reports logged by children, along with details on any blocks they imposed. There are also options to remotely log children out of the app and to access information the service stores about users.
Another amendment hands control over blocking and unblocking contacts to children, though parents will have oversight of any communications in the case of the latter.
Facebook said it developed an in-app activity tracker to inform children about the types of information others can see about them, including messaging content which only parents can delete.
The company updated its privacy policy “to include additional information about our data collection, use, sharing, retention and deletion practices”.
“We don’t use children’s data from Messenger Kids for advertising. There continue to be no ads in Messenger Kids and no in-app purchases. And as the updated privacy policy reaffirms, we don’t sell any of your or your child’s information to anyone, and we never will”, Facebook stated.
The company faced scrutiny from governments related to online safety after plans to add end-to-end encryption to the service.
In early 2018, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) called for the app to be discontinued due to concerns about the use of social media by children.
Messenger Kids launched in December 2017 targeting children aged six years to 12 years-old, initially in the US, and expanded globally in June 2018.
