“We recently notified some parents of Messenger Kids to account users about a technical error that we detected affecting a small number of group chats,” a Facebook spokesperson was quoted as saying. “We turned off the affected chats and provided parents with additional resources on Messenger Kids and online safety,” the company added. Messenger Kids is a video chat and messaging app designed for kids to communicate with family and close friends that parents or caregivers approve. Parents set up and manage their child’s Messenger Kids account through their own Facebook account. It is unclear how long the bug was present in the app’s group chat feature. Last year, more than 100 child health experts wrote an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, urging him to discontinue the Messenger Kids app. “At a time when there is mounting concern about how social media use affects the well being of adolescents, it is particularly irresponsible to encourage children as young as pre-schoolers to start using a Facebook product,” the authors wrote. Facing the flak from lawmakers and experts, Facebook in February this year decided not to build a new app called “LOL” to let children share and post humorous meme content. Instead, the social media giant said it would focus more on its Messenger Kids service.
