Photo: FacebookFacebook Messenger Kids has been giving parents and their children a supervised channel of communication since 2017, letting kids chat freely with friends and loved ones.While parents have always had the final say in who their kids are talking to — and just what messages and images they’re sending and receiving — a slew of new safety features are ready to make the app even more accessible.Messenger Kids announced a new parent dashboard on Tuesday, meaning some of the features that parents were previously able to access on their child’s device are now available to view in one place in a more streamlined manner on devices of their own.“It’s just the convenience of where they can see that,” says Nitya Madhavan, marketing lead on Messenger Kids, which is geared at kids 6-12 years old.Madhavan and Antigone Davis, Facebook’s global head of safety, tell PEOPLE that the upgrades emerged from continued talks with parents and their children about how to improve the Messenger Kids experience, which Davis says resembles “technology on training wheels.”“Last year we were in Dallas talking to some kids and their parents and a few of them actually said, ‘You know, we like the fact that our parents have control and that they get to decide who I speak to and they’re able to see what I see,’” Madhavan says. “They like the fact that mom and dad are there when they need them, that they can pop in when they need them. Funny enough, they’re also like, ‘I like that I can say, “My mom said I couldn’t do something,”’ you know, and they like using that as an excuse.”With the new dashboard comes several other new features, including parent access to their children’s recent contacts and chat history so they can see who their kids are spending their time talking to.Parents also now have a log of all the images that have been sent or received from their child’s account, any of which can be removed at any time.On top of that, parents can also see who their child has blocked or reported, and why.RELATED VIDEO: Emotional Ad Shows Power of Facebook for Military Moms Across County“This happens with kids. They’re like, ‘I don’t want to be this kid’s friend anymore. I’m blocking you,’” says Madhavan. “Or in some cases, if the child is feeling like, ‘I don’t feel comfortable with this conversation or this person is not being nice to me,’ they can block that person and the parent gets that view in terms of who their child has blocked through the app, or unblocked.”This, she says, gives parents a chance to have an open conversation with their child about their relationships with their peers.“These really came because we’ve continued that conversation with parents,” Davis says. “So think of a parent maybe wanting to be able to see what their child’s activity is. Maybe they’re at work, they want to see what’s going on. You see that the child was reported and they really want to understand and take a look, like what does that look like, what’s happening here? They can look at that whole history and that allows them to have a conversation with their child.”In addition, the app now features a remote device logout, meaning with one click, all accounts that the child has logged into on any device will be logged out, as well as the opportunity for parents to download all of their child’s information, including a list of contacts, as well as any texts, images or videos they’ve received.“I really think about it as a digital playground,” Madhavan says. “If you think about a playground in real life, kids are on that playground playing with each other, having fun, interacting with each other. But when you look around the playground, parents are on that periphery. They’re watching, they’re supervising, they’re ready to jump in if they’re needed, but they really are allowing and watching kids have each other. And that’s really what Messenger Kids is in a digital space.”
Photo: Facebook
Facebook Messenger Kids has been giving parents and their children a supervised channel of communication since 2017, letting kids chat freely with friends and loved ones.While parents have always had the final say in who their kids are talking to — and just what messages and images they’re sending and receiving — a slew of new safety features are ready to make the app even more accessible.Messenger Kids announced a new parent dashboard on Tuesday, meaning some of the features that parents were previously able to access on their child’s device are now available to view in one place in a more streamlined manner on devices of their own.“It’s just the convenience of where they can see that,” says Nitya Madhavan, marketing lead on Messenger Kids, which is geared at kids 6-12 years old.Madhavan and Antigone Davis, Facebook’s global head of safety, tell PEOPLE that the upgrades emerged from continued talks with parents and their children about how to improve the Messenger Kids experience, which Davis says resembles “technology on training wheels.”“Last year we were in Dallas talking to some kids and their parents and a few of them actually said, ‘You know, we like the fact that our parents have control and that they get to decide who I speak to and they’re able to see what I see,’” Madhavan says. “They like the fact that mom and dad are there when they need them, that they can pop in when they need them. Funny enough, they’re also like, ‘I like that I can say, “My mom said I couldn’t do something,”’ you know, and they like using that as an excuse.”With the new dashboard comes several other new features, including parent access to their children’s recent contacts and chat history so they can see who their kids are spending their time talking to.Parents also now have a log of all the images that have been sent or received from their child’s account, any of which can be removed at any time.On top of that, parents can also see who their child has blocked or reported, and why.RELATED VIDEO: Emotional Ad Shows Power of Facebook for Military Moms Across County“This happens with kids. They’re like, ‘I don’t want to be this kid’s friend anymore. I’m blocking you,’” says Madhavan. “Or in some cases, if the child is feeling like, ‘I don’t feel comfortable with this conversation or this person is not being nice to me,’ they can block that person and the parent gets that view in terms of who their child has blocked through the app, or unblocked.”This, she says, gives parents a chance to have an open conversation with their child about their relationships with their peers.“These really came because we’ve continued that conversation with parents,” Davis says. “So think of a parent maybe wanting to be able to see what their child’s activity is. Maybe they’re at work, they want to see what’s going on. You see that the child was reported and they really want to understand and take a look, like what does that look like, what’s happening here? They can look at that whole history and that allows them to have a conversation with their child.”In addition, the app now features a remote device logout, meaning with one click, all accounts that the child has logged into on any device will be logged out, as well as the opportunity for parents to download all of their child’s information, including a list of contacts, as well as any texts, images or videos they’ve received.“I really think about it as a digital playground,” Madhavan says. “If you think about a playground in real life, kids are on that playground playing with each other, having fun, interacting with each other. But when you look around the playground, parents are on that periphery. They’re watching, they’re supervising, they’re ready to jump in if they’re needed, but they really are allowing and watching kids have each other. And that’s really what Messenger Kids is in a digital space.”
Facebook Messenger Kids has been giving parents and their children a supervised channel of communication since 2017, letting kids chat freely with friends and loved ones.
While parents have always had the final say in who their kids are talking to — and just what messages and images they’re sending and receiving — a slew of new safety features are ready to make the app even more accessible.
Messenger Kids announced a new parent dashboard on Tuesday, meaning some of the features that parents were previously able to access on their child’s device are now available to view in one place in a more streamlined manner on devices of their own.
“It’s just the convenience of where they can see that,” says Nitya Madhavan, marketing lead on Messenger Kids, which is geared at kids 6-12 years old.
Madhavan and Antigone Davis, Facebook’s global head of safety, tell PEOPLE that the upgrades emerged from continued talks with parents and their children about how to improve the Messenger Kids experience, which Davis says resembles “technology on training wheels.”
“Last year we were in Dallas talking to some kids and their parents and a few of them actually said, ‘You know, we like the fact that our parents have control and that they get to decide who I speak to and they’re able to see what I see,’” Madhavan says. “They like the fact that mom and dad are there when they need them, that they can pop in when they need them. Funny enough, they’re also like, ‘I like that I can say, “My mom said I couldn’t do something,”’ you know, and they like using that as an excuse.”
With the new dashboard comes several other new features, including parent access to their children’s recent contacts and chat history so they can see who their kids are spending their time talking to.
Parents also now have a log of all the images that have been sent or received from their child’s account, any of which can be removed at any time.
On top of that, parents can also see who their child has blocked or reported, and why.
RELATED VIDEO: Emotional Ad Shows Power of Facebook for Military Moms Across County
“This happens with kids. They’re like, ‘I don’t want to be this kid’s friend anymore. I’m blocking you,’” says Madhavan. “Or in some cases, if the child is feeling like, ‘I don’t feel comfortable with this conversation or this person is not being nice to me,’ they can block that person and the parent gets that view in terms of who their child has blocked through the app, or unblocked.”
This, she says, gives parents a chance to have an open conversation with their child about their relationships with their peers.
“These really came because we’ve continued that conversation with parents,” Davis says. “So think of a parent maybe wanting to be able to see what their child’s activity is. Maybe they’re at work, they want to see what’s going on. You see that the child was reported and they really want to understand and take a look, like what does that look like, what’s happening here? They can look at that whole history and that allows them to have a conversation with their child.”
In addition, the app now features a remote device logout, meaning with one click, all accounts that the child has logged into on any device will be logged out, as well as the opportunity for parents to download all of their child’s information, including a list of contacts, as well as any texts, images or videos they’ve received.
“I really think about it as a digital playground,” Madhavan says. “If you think about a playground in real life, kids are on that playground playing with each other, having fun, interacting with each other. But when you look around the playground, parents are on that periphery. They’re watching, they’re supervising, they’re ready to jump in if they’re needed, but they really are allowing and watching kids have each other. And that’s really what Messenger Kids is in a digital space.”
source: people.com
