Facebook "solves real problems in people's lives" is the most absurd thing I've read in a while. How many of the world's problems have been solved by Facebook? Facebook has monetized people's lives and privacy. And your kids are next!
14
No child under 16 should be using any type of social media including FB.
Parents purchasing their children smart phones are ridiculous. Monkey see, monkey do.
You can guarantee that the Zuckerberg and Gates and other's children are not using FB or even have their hands upon any type of electronic device.
7
A gift to pedophiles the world over. It used to be that parents were advised to keep video images of children off the internet for the young ones' security. Whatever happened to that? And now the children will be splashing themselves all over these public spaces. So tragic.
2
I think it's great that Zuckerberg and Co are taking the children's best interests to heart like this -
Isn't it time we organize a global boycott of Facebook on Facebook, ask everybody go back to writing letters for a year or so?
https://www.theonion.com/world-agrees-to-just-take-down-internet-for-a-w...
3
"Loren Cheng, product director for Messenger Kids, said Facebook would not use for marketing purposes the details it collected from children."
Liar!
3
I am so glad I don't have kids.
1
This is garbage.
Any parent supportive of this app, making the arguing that our children need to remain competitive, are so naive, I question their very ability to raise the next generation. Sending notes to their friends with emojis and kitten ears...?!? Gimme a break.
The trouble with our youth is nothing more than the sloppy, lazy parenting going on in today’s society.
6
This is beyond disturbing - surely there are laws to prevent Facebook to peddling to children. Can a rational adult please step up and stop this?
3
I will get right to the point. Its not a debate to me about how young is to young but after the mess Facebook made to our elections last year. Their greed for money . The dismissal of their interactions with the Russian I would not trust my child to do anything on Facebook. The CEO has refused to work with the Senate about their role in the elections sending everyone else but himself to testify. We can build an application for children to make money but we can not stop Russian trolls. This is corporate America have we no shame about embracing the Russians and making money off of our children. what else are we giving up to worship at the feet of corporate greed in America.
3
Facebook for children. Yeah! Facebook is precisely where we don't want the internet to go. Facebook's advertising-funded model inherently favors malevolent abuse by bad actors who play to our darkest emotions. Properly speaking, Facebook is a behavior modification machine. Clearly, Facebook is just the thing for our children.
3
This is at least as sick and evil as the tobacco companies efforts to get children addicted to smoking or chewing as early as possible and keep them for as long as they can. It is almost literally the exact same thing.
2
If the wife of Bill Gates thinks it would have been a good idea to DELAY putting a computer in her kids' pockets, then I, personally put a great deal of stock in Melinda's opinions on this subject. Do a search for Melinda Gates's op-ed piece on that subject that appeared in the Wash Post.
Also do a search for an op-ed piece that appeared in the Atlantic titled "Have Smartphones destroyed a generation".
You do NOT have to give your kids a phone for Christmas or Chanukah just because their friends have one. And, if you do... I strongly recommend that you only give your kids perhaps something that they can only call and text on. From experience, I have seen that the bigger the screen, the higher the resolution of the screen and the faster the processing speed, the more it will suck your kids into the digital world and turn them into little zombies.
I also implore parents, to stop putting a smartphone in your kids' hands (at an early age), as some sort of digital babysitter. For those of you who have already done so, you've probably already realized that, without the phone, they almost unlearn the ability to self soothe and entertain themselves. All we're doing is giving our kids digital crack that will addict them for the rest of their lives.
Stop giving stuff to kids and make memories with them instead. Whether that's a camping trip to Yosemite, tickets to see a game at Wrigley Field or if you can afford it, a trip to Disneyworld or even a ski vacation in Colorado.
5
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
If adults just -know- Facebook's soooo bad for children (and I agree it is) then why do they allow their own, harmful addictions to social media to fester?
It's time to start producting for yourselves, folks. Get a website if you need to share. Stop giving so much of your precious time on this earth to Corporate advertising.
Facebook, like cigarettes, is hard to quit -- by design of those profiting from it (ie. 2 week waiting period, hidden instructions, etc.) but it 's not impossible for the strong-willed.
5
As a parent and someone who works in the tech industry, I say "No thank you". As a FB shareholder, I say "Yes please!"
That should be all you need to know about this in terms of what it means for your kid.
11
This new Facebook app is very dangerous, and the Federal government should order Facebook to take it down. The children will be compromised by the Russian government which owns Facebook.
2
Great idea. Let's push another app, now on children, where they can "friend", and "follow", and "like". No need to socially interact on a human level just push buttons and snap picture. And look at the new opportunities for bullying! Terrific.
2
So Facebook now wants to spread the plague to the children. The app for adults itself is a huge waste of time, invasion of privacy and etc., now they want to enmesh the children in their web, another mine field on the road to adulthood and another source of revenue for Facebook. I would be curious to see how many hours Mr. Zuckenberg and his spouse spend on his creation and whether they will let their offspring touch that thing before high school.
1
A lot of the comments here seem to be missing the point: this isn't about whether it's good for kids in terms of their development, social or emotional or intellectual or otherwise. Please remember how Facebook makes its billions: by selling your data, the data of its members, or, basically, by selling you. The problem with adding children is that Facebook will now have their data, including where they are, the things they talk about, the things they want, even details about their parents or family that as children they won't be trying to protect. Facebook isn't free because the company cares about connecting you with your friends and family; it's free because it's a business, which stores and sells your information, and which would now like to store and sell your children's information as well.
And yes, I also read that bit where Loren Cheng said Facebook wouldn't use children's details for marketing purposes. And you know what? I don't buy it for a second. Nothing in Facebook's history, from its start as a beauty-comparison site to its lie-infested opinion echo chamber version of today, suggests that they wouldn't leap at an advertising opportunity so lucrative.
12
I think there are upsides and downsides to this (wecome to Planet Trade-offs) but one upside is more kids will learn to read, since talking to friends is more important to most kids than the reading the books they have in school.
Most of us work for Facebook. Meaning we freely share info that FB monetizes and which intensifies FB's ability via new apps and acquisitions to entice us or keep us more and more on their platform as well as to shut out competition. Didn't FB's quarterly profit soar 79% from the prior quarter and while revenue was up 50%?
And now they have a way for the under 13's to work for FB for free too.
6
This is nothing more than a business decision to grow Facebook's stock. I hope parents are not naive and think that this will be a good addition to one's childhood.
Children younger than 13 should be outside playing, being creative outside of a screen, and explore the world around them. It really is disguising that facebook is now trying to further intrude into the lives of children - who are already facing rising depression and stress as technology and constant social pressure surrounds them.
22
Thank you!
If families are upset about this new communication tool for kids, there is a solution: prohibit them from using it. They need an adult account to use Messenger Kids. Deriding technology puts it in the context that it is something we have no control over. When we choose to engage with these products, we need to be aware of and help our kids understand the benefits and risks, like any other action. Recently, I deleted my FB account, and I explained why to my children, family, and friends. These are conscious choices.
14
I hear no deriding but rather concern. Yes, it is in the hands of parents but Facebook really should not be going after children's data.
The brainwashing can't start too early for facebook and their Wall Street Robber Baron/Radical anti-christ religionsists Good Old Boys' Cabal.
Let's hope parents are too SMART to let their kids participate.
7
Reality is (as stated in the article) that early teens and preteens already heavily engage with the internet. Restrictions don't work. It's yet not possible for technology to recognize the age of users. Sad but true: a preteen can without restrictions watch let's say a site like youporn.
So the question is how to ensure preteen appropriate quality:
And this is less about violence, sexual content. It is about using the virtual social media as a tool for real life connections.
Real physical interaction is the way how kids learn social behavior not thru emojis and funny filters. Empathy and compassion, and the ability to truly connect with friends and people you only learn offline.
I don't know the new FB app. But if it motivates kids to actually meet in real life and not just spend hours online (like we adults) replacing real life encounters with virtual interaction - than it is something good.
But that would almost be in contradiction to its own purpose of binding kids to this platform.
1
What do you mean, "restrictions don't work"? We are absolutely on top of what our 10-year-old does and sees online. She is allowed to watch videos on Amazon Prime. She is not allowed to buy / rent new videos. She is not allowed YouTube at all. She has a flip phone, and will for a good long time. If she gets a smartphone, she will not be allowed to use social networking apps on it. These restrictions will apply until she heads off to college.
3
This takeover isn't "inevitable". It's only inevitable if people, parents, don't fight it. Parents that do let it happen, or (God help us) encourage facebook use, make it that much harder for the rest to fight.
9
The point of a messenger for kids is to get them hooked to Facebook as early as possible and to gather more data that they can sell to advertisers. "Facebook said its overall mission remained centered on bringing the world closer together." Right, that's as dishonest and stupid as if Coca Cola would say the mission of Coca Cola is to keep the world from being parched. Come on Facebook, your overall mission is making loads of money, that's about it. It's really that simple.
20
Why would a child under 13 even have a smartphone?
23
If we want to undo the Helicopter Parenting era, that means letting them get around on their own again starting in the tween years, as things were back in the 1970s and earlier. Knowing they are safe is helpful with a cellphone, which allows them to contact you, the parent, as well as to track their location. It's not defacto a bad thing, especially in cities where kids can walk or take public transportation on their own.
2
They all do now. It's inevitable once they reach a certain point in elementary school - there are no pay phones anymore, so the prevailing thinking seems to be 'how will they contact a parent if they need to?'. While I believe that some parents give the phones to their young kids for genuine safety reasons and lay down usage rules, others don't want their kid to be "left out of the crowd", and others, no matter what their reservations, just give in if their kid throws enough of a fit. ("But everyone has one!" You're the worst parent ever!") God forbid your child doesn't like you for five minutes.
Considering how social-media saturated and phone-crazy our culture is right now, this new step on the part of Facebook isn't much of a surprise. These kids have literally been involved in this stuff since they were in the womb. People document every aspect of their pregnancies on social media these days; I know a woman who, when she went in labor, regularly updated her Facebook status to include how many centimeters she was dilated, an absurd series of updates that literally continued until she was rushed into the OR for an emergency C-section. What with their parents documenting everything they do and young children having access to all kinds of technology that even adults don't use properly, it's inevitable that Facebook, which is interested not in people but in its own bottom line, would have seized on parents' narcissism and, tragically, kids' ability to be manipulated.
2
This is sick, and I couldn't even read it all. Scanned, it doesn't cover lots of new studies showing that social media is hurting our young people, causing alientation and depression. Frank Bruni wrote a brilliant piece on loneliness being an epidemic for college freshman. Facebook Friends won't bring you dinner when your sick. A commentor to Bruni, a professor, wrote he felt sorry for his college students, all standing outside his class room every day, staring at their phones, unable or uninterested in interacting with each other. We remember when young people had more skills to interact with others.
David blogs at TheTaysonRebllion.com, and InconvenientNews.wordpress.com
20
This is child exploitation folks. Don't fall prey to it!
12
Sure, get them used to Russian propaganda, peer pressure and extreme social shaming while they're young. Way to go Facebook!
30
Why do people continue to accept this idea of one teacher one idea? Facebook, Apple, tech-in general mask their totalitarian ideology in a magic act that they are connecting and equalizing society. They are thieves of minds. It is funny though, because I am using their tools to send this message.
6
I always had the impression that Facebook WAS for CHILDREN..............
19
Great! Somehow very true.
Parents, tech and kids is not inevitable and throwing up your hands and saying,”Whaddya going to do?” is not parenting.
Many tech-connected parents (including the late Steve Jobs of Apple) limited their child’s screentime and certainly would not see this attempt by Facebook to get data on your child as a good thing.
Make no mistake - now and into the future- data is the new coin of the realm and companies want it as soon as they can get it from kids.
12
Kids under 13 have been on FB since forever. All they had to do was lie about their age. 12 year olds were always employed at Crusty Crab, Hollister's or some other fake employer. Worse than the Fake news it became. Now FB is just a cess pool of Fear Mongers and Morons. I cancelled my account that I never used anyway. Took forever and a lot of work. They make it difficult so that they can say they have so many members. FB is absolutely the worst thing to ever happen to society. Kids were obsessed with having the most friends. Hundreds of people they never knew. Adults do the same thing. If friend list were limited to the people who come visit at your house, most people wouldn't have any. Hopefully it will go the way of AIM, MYSPACE and other so called social media sites before it.
14
It won't, because it's used by organizations and corporations. Which, by the way, is what you can use it for if you don't like the whole "fake friends" thing. Most of what is on my wall has to do with organizations I follow, like my children's schools and places I wish to patronize, or sites related to my hobbies (cooking and travel). It's easier to unfollow the "Fear Mongers and Morons" of which you speak and follow the things you like instead.
1
Despite the kumbaya rhetoric, Facebook is just another soulless corporation whose only focus is on making money. The only reason they do anything is to increase profitability. Period. It's amazing to me that anyone takes what it's paid propagandists say seriously.
43
Just a q?
Wd Mr. Z and Dr. Chan want their girls (when they get a little bigger) on this?
Wd. Ms. Sandberg?
a whole new meaning to "Lean In" then?
6
This is the first thing I thought about once I read this article on the New App. I think Mark Zuckerberg needs to indoctrinate his child to this app. It must be mandatory. If your children are not allowed to use then it should not be made for other children. As I hear, the executives of Apple don't allow their school age children to have iPhones until high school or after. If it is not right for your children then what makes you think it is good for ours?
1
... Where exactly did we as cogent beings trade "FREE" for delivering our lives to a platter to Facebook and Google? Certainly, they provide value based upon their cost but when in our entire experience of the human condition has absolute power (and reach) not corrupted absolutely? How many of these parents handing their kid's privacy over to Facebook have also previously warned them about strangers and candy?
7
When the debate about the tobacco companies' roles in tobacco use began years ago, I was initially reluctant to punish those companies, keeping individual responsibility in mind. Over time it came out that these companies had devoted billions to make their products more addictive, e. g. adding ammonia to accelerate the uptake of nicotine. The last straw for me were the marketing plans to entice children to smoke, like Camel's Joe Camel cartoons. I find myself thinking of Facebook more like the tobacco companies every day. Facebook counts 1/4 of the world's population as members. It is largely unregulated, and as we saw in November 2016, capable of actions that have literally put the world on the brink.
25
My parents would periodically tell me to stop reading books and go out and play. So I did. They helped me achieve an important balance between solitary and social pursuits.
Hypothetically, if I were to suggest in a few years that my grandson put down the smartphone and go outside and play, who's going to be out there for him to play with? Kids under 10 need computer screens like they need the measles. And teenagers have enough to figure out about the world without the counterproductive daily drumbeat of which friends are getting more "likes" on Facebook.
I wish my daughter and her husband well as they navigate this new world. Cigarette companies were banned from creating ads attractive to children, slowing their sickening attempt to get the next generation addicted to their products as early as possible. Isn't this exactly what Facebook is doing?
Rest assured, FB is not interested in the health and well-being of your children. If they were, they'd spend their development dollars building playgrounds.
53
Facebook has seen its relevance among teens and young adults erode. Only parents use Facebook now. This is the way for them to build a new generation of devotees, aka data products for marketers.
Do you trust Facebook to be an integral part of your child's formative years? Because that's what this means. Facebook is not doing this out of the goodness of it's "heart."
Expect them to use the data they collect, including types of images and messaging children use, to direct marketing efforts either through them or as data products used by their paying customers. It won't be individual data, but collective data that marketers can use to target children now, or later, when it's legal, to target the teens they will become.
40
Are you sure only parents use it? Every month I see new teens opening accounts - the children of my friends, or my little nieces and cousins.
1