Today, Messenger Kids has over half a million users across iOS and Android, and is continuing to grow with these international expansions. And even if a startup came up with a similar service, it would be hard to compete with Facebook’s scale. Using the Parent Dashboard from their Facebook account, parents can manage their child’s friends, monitor their activity and change their account settings. While the app continues to be controversial because of its maker – Facebook is using it to get kids hooked on its products at a young age – there aren’t any real alternatives for parents who want texting apps for kids with parental controls and friend approvals built in. This isn’t something you can do with other social apps. Create an account for your kid by adding their name, birthday, and creating a unique JusTalk ID. Download the JusTalk Kids app to your childs phone or tablet. JusTalk Kids allows kids to video call and message using Wi-Fi so they dont need a phone number. I then adjusted the app’s “bedtime hours” to limit calls to certain daytime hours. No additional app download is needed for parents. As kids gets older, parents should continue to spot check their conversations and have discussions about what the child may have done right or wrong.įor example, we use Messenger Kids in our home, and I recently had a conversation about when it’s too early or too late to be placing a video call, after reviewing the chat history. However, it’s still advisable for parents to sit with kids as they practice texting for the first time, in order to talk about what’s appropriate behavior. These approaches are meant to help kids learn, from the beginning, better ways of communicating when online. For example, it recently introduced a section of guidelines that remind kids to “be kind” and “be respectful” and rolled out “kindness stickers” which are meant to encourage more positive emotions when communicating online. The app in Mexico works the same as it does elsewhere – parents have to approve all the contacts the child is allowed to talk to – whether that’s family members the child knows, like grandma and grandpa, or the child’s friends.įacebook has consulted with paid advisor Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and others on the development of Messenger Kids’ features focused on principles of social and emotional learning. The launch follows Messenger Kids’ recent expansion outside the U.S., where in June it first became available to users in Canada and Peru. No European countries are on the list.Messenger Kids, Facebook’s parent-controlled messaging app that lets kids text, call, video chat, and use face filters, has now arrived in Mexico. The new countries are in various regions of the world and include Afghanistan, Costa Rica, Indonesia and Tuvalu. Some privacy activists have argued the app could be harmful to children by drawing them into online activity and potentially gathering data on them.įacebook has argued that the app helps parents supervise their youngsters who would be using its platform without safeguards. Now with supervised friending, parents can choose to allow their kids to also accept, reject, add or remove contacts, while maintaining the ability to override any new contact approvals." "Previously, it was up to parents to invite and approve every contact for their child. "Parents have told us they want to be able to give their kids more independence in managing their contact list while still maintaining parental supervision," Davis said. Up to now these had to be initiated by the parents. Kids will be able to initiate their own friend requests. Parents in the US, Canada and Latin America can also allow their children to make their name and profile photo visible as part of the move to get more friends. With the changes announced Wednesday, kids will be able to connect in groups to help facilitate learning, under parental supervision. Messenger Kids was launched in the United States in 2017 and expanded later to Canada and a handful of other countries, aiming at children too young for a Facebook account. Today, we're starting to roll out Messenger Kids to more countries and we’re adding new choices for parents to connect kids with friends." "Messenger Kids is a video chat and messaging app that helps kids connect with friends and family in a fun, parent-controlled space. "With schools closed and people physically distancing, parents are turning to technology more than ever to help their kids connect with friends and family," Facebook's global head of safety Antigone Davis said in a blog post. The app, which is aimed at children under 13, will also be adding a "supervised friending" feature enabling parents to approve new connections, starting in the United States and gradually rolling out to other countries. Facebook on Wednesday rolled out its Messenger Kids application to 70 new countries, saying it can help children deal with the challenges of distance learning and isolation during the virus lockdowns.
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