It’s promoted as a ‘safe kids’ chat app’, but new findings may put you off letting your children use the Facebook Messenger Kids app.
A design flaw has been discovered within the app, that allowed thousands of children to chat to strangers online.
A report by The Verge revealed that Facebook has quietly been closing down these group chats and alerting users, but did not make a public statement about the issue.
The alert reads: We found a technical error that allowed [CHILD]’s friend [FRIEND] to create a group chat with [CHILD] and one or more of [FRIEND]’s parent-approved friends.
“We want you to know that we’ve turned off this group chat and are making sure that group chats like this won’t be allowed in the future.”
Facebook has now confirmed the issue, which it says stemmed from a ‘technical error.’
The app works by letting parents set permissions on who their children can chat to, meaning one-on-one conversations can only be started with trusted contacts.
However, while this applied to one-on-one chats, the flaw meant that children could be added to group chats with strangers, as long as one of their trusted contacts had added them.
Worryingly, it remains unclear how long this flaw has been present in the app, or how many users
This isn’t the first time that concerns have been raised about the Facebook Messenger Kids app.
Back when it launched in 2017, 19 groups and nearly 100 individuals signed a letter pleading with Facebook to remove the app.
The letter read: “Encouraging kids to move their friendships online will interfere with and displace the face-to-face interactions and play that are crucial for building healthy developmental skills, including the ability to read human emotion, delay gratification, and engage with the physical world.
Mirror Online has contacted Facebook for comment on the issue.
