Then, of course, there is Facebook Messenger, owned by the same parent company as WhatsApp. You might have never heard of WeChat either because most of its userbase is in China. WhatsApp has been in the game for a long time and is easily the king. (Parents might also be concerned about their children’s messages being scanned by Facebook for advertising reasons, as Facebook is an advertising company at its core, but Facebook says children’s chats will be off-limits for such purposes.When it comes to the big instant messaging apps used internationally, three apps are clear at the top: WhatsApp, WeChat, and Facebook Messenger. It’s a restrictive system, but one that highlights how tricky it is to give children access to social media, and particularly an app that’s operated by one of the world’s largest (and most controversial) social media firms. Parents can also remove people from a child’s contact list at any time as well. In order to befriend another child in Messenger Kids, a parent must also be friends with that child’s parent on Facebook. That means when a child reports a conversation that they find offensive or block an individual user in the app (or vice versa), the parent is notified on Facebook.

The control panel for Messenger Kids is located in the main Facebook app.

Messenger Kids may be completely separate from Facebook’s other apps, but a lot of the parental management happens through Facebook. Kids can’t delete messages either, so theoretically if a child is using inappropriate language, they wouldn’t be able to erase what they’ve said. This, combined with the fact that parents have to approve each of their children’s contacts, should prevent phony accounts from appearing on the platform, a practice that’s become a huge problem for Facebook. A child can’t even create an account on his or her own - a parent must do it for them.

But most importantly, Facebook is giving parents total control over how their children use the app and with whom they can communicate.

Facebook messenger on kindle fire