Facebook Messenger Kids App Now Has More Parental Controls
Facebook is mostly always in the news due to some kind of privacy concern. On one such occasion, they – rightfully – received a lot of criticism last summer when their Messenger Kids app inadvertently allowed kids to enter group chats with users their parents didn’t approve of. At the time, Facebook called it a “technical mistake” for an app that targets children under 13.
If your kids were using the app at that time, you probably just uninstalled it. However, if you haven’t, you might be pleased to know that Facebook has announced the launch of some new tools on its parent toolbar that should make it easier to monitor your child’s chat history, delete and report inappropriate images or videos, and register them remotely. …
New features available on the parental panel of Messenger Kids
Recent contacts and chat history
You can see who your child is chatting with and how often, and whether they are sending messages or video chatting.
Image log
Here you can see the most recent photos and videos your child has sent and received in their inbox. You can remove any images or videos that you consider inappropriate from the thread and report them.
Registered and blocked contact history
View messages in the app that your child has reported and who they’ve blocked or unblocked. Parents will still receive Messenger notifications if their child blocks someone or complains about someone.
Information download
You can request a copy of your child’s information in Messenger Kids, including a list of their contacts, messages, pictures and videos they’ve sent and received. (Note that your child will be notified through their app when you request this.)
Logout from a remote device
In the parental panel, you can see all the devices your child is registered with for Messenger Kids and you can sign out of them. (This feature is different from the sleep feature , which lets you set when an app goes to sleep overnight.)
How to access new features
Tap the context menu in the Facebook app and scroll to the Messenger Kids icon. If you have multiple children using the app, select the name of the child whose account you want to access to see their individual information.
As Facebook reports , the way blocking works has changed:
Kids can now unblock a blocked contact on their own if they want to restart one-on-one chats with them, and chats with blocked contacts will remain in the Messenger Kids inbox for parents to view if they want. Children and their blocked contacts will still be visible to each other and will remain in shared group chats, but will not be able to communicate with each other separately. Children will also receive a warning if they return or are added to a group chat that includes a blocked contact and can leave the group chats at any time.
Parents still have control over who their child is connected to in Messenger Kids, and can remove people from their child’s contact list at any time.
It’s important to emphasize that this means that they could still end up in a group chat with a blocked or unknown contact if they don’t choose to leave the group on their own.