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Facebook brings Messenger Kids to Canada, Peru
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IANS | 23 Jun, 2018
Despite call for withdrawal by experts, Facebook has decided to expand
the reach of Messenger Kids by introducing the video calling and
messaging app designed for children under 13 to families in Canada and
Peru.
The Messenger Kids app was launched in the US last year.
Facebook
on Friday said it will also introduce Spanish and French versions of
the app to all three countries where the app is available.
Earlier
this year, more than 100 child health experts wrote an open letter to
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, urging him to discontinue the app.
"At
a time when there is mounting concern about how social media use
affects adolescents' well being, it is particularly irresponsible to
encourage children as young as pre-schoolers to start using a Facebook
product," the authors wrote.
But instead of heeding to their
advice, Faceboook has now introduced the app in two other countries,
while adding that it wants to promote "responsible use" of Messenger
Kids.
It also created new features rooted in "principles of
social and emotional learning" including "Kindness Stickers", a new set
of photo stickers designed to inspire kindness towards others and
"Messenger Kids Pledge", a pledge of guiding principles between parents
and kids that encourage the responsible use of the app.
The points of the pledge are -- "Be Kind", "Be Respectful", "Be Safe", and "Have Fun".
Facebook
said it was working in collaboration with researchers from the Yale
Center for Emotional Intelligence and a global group of advisors to
develop "Appreciation Mission", an interactive guide within the app that
will encourage kids to discover and express appreciation for their
friends and family.
"This is part of the 'Missions' section of
the app where kids learn how to use certain features like starting a
video call and sending a photo," Loren Cheng, Facebook's Product
Management Director and Tarunya Govindarajan, Product Manager at the
social networking site, said in a statement.
"In addition to
these features, we'll continue to improve other parts of the app and
controls based on parent and expert feedback.
"For example, one
thing we heard consistently is that parents want more than one parent to
have control over kid accounts, so starting today we're making it
possible for two parents to manage accounts," Cheng and Govindarajan
wrote.
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