Child Health Advocates Demand to Shut Down Facebook Kids Messenger

Facebook new app, Messenger Kids is advised to be shut down. more than 100 child development experts, health advocacy groups, educators, and parents have called on Facebook to shut down Messenger Kids. Child Health Advocates Demand to Shut Down Facebook Kids Messenger.

They urged Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to pull the plug on the video chat app, citing research that suggests social media can have a detrimental impact on a child’s healthy development in early life.

Child Health Advocates Demand to Shut Down Facebook Kids Messenger

At the time of Messenger Kids launch Facebook described it as an easier and safer way for kids to video chat and message with family and friends when they can’t be together in person, and said the product had been co-developed with parents, kids and experts.

Child health experts said that the app’s overall impact on families and society is likely to be negative, as it creates pressure for kids to join a digital social network.

Health advocacy groups mentioned in a letter that:

Younger children are simply not ready to have social media accounts. They also do not have a fully developed understanding of privacy, including what’s appropriate to share with others and who has access to their conversations, pictures, and videos. 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 preschoolers to start using a Facebook product.”

However, global head of safety of Facebook, Antigone Davis, responded to the letter and he said that it collaborated with child health experts to make Messenger Kids as safe for kids as possible.

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