UPDATED 23:48 EDT / SEPTEMBER 28 2021

POLICY

Facebook responds to leaked documents about exploring the kids’ market

Leaked documents published by The Wall Street Journal today show how Facebook Inc. spent a lot of time exploring how children use social media, forcing it to respond to more criticism once again.

Just yesterday, Facebook announced that it was putting its plan on hold to develop Instagram Kids, a version of the app for children under the age of 13. The decision came after a torrent of criticism over the mental health impact that social media apps can have on young people.

It seems Instagram Kids was in line with what Facebook has been thinking for years. That is, how does it secure a footing in the children’s market and compete with apps such as ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok and Snap Inc.’s Snapchat? According to the documents, Facebook has been thinking about children and tweens for some time.

“With the ubiquity of tablets and phones, kids are getting on the internet as young as six years old,” said one document, written in 2018. “We can’t ignore this and we have a responsibility to figure it out. Imagine a Facebook experience designed for youth.”

That would make business sense, of course, but in view of all the negative press Facebook has received over Instagram Kids and the fact it has taken flak because many people and organizations believe social media is inherently bad for kids — well, it’s not a good look.

Perhaps worse is the fact the documents seem to reveal that Facebook wasn’t just looking into the market for young teens and pre-teens but also kids from the aged 0 to nine. Still, Facebook responded to this by saying although it wasn’t actually planning to design products for children that young, it was studying the habits of people at such a young age.

“It’s not new and it’s not a secret that social-media companies try to understand how teens and preteens use technology,” Facebook told the Journal. “Like all technology companies, of course, we want to appeal to the next generation, but that’s entirely different from the false assertion that we knowingly attempt to recruit people who aren’t old enough to use our apps.”

Nonetheless, another document talked about “exploring playdates as a growth lever.” That also didn’t come across well. Facebook countered in a blog post published today, stating that studying children’s habits is in line with developing suitable products for them as they age.

“There is nothing nefarious or secretive about this work,” Facebook added, saying that out of context it could be construed that Facebook was planning on dominating children’s lives with products. The company added that if it wasn’t studying children in line with the “Age Appropriate Design Code” policy, that might be “newsworthy.” As for “exploring playdates,” Facebook conceded that “the language we used was an insensitive way to pose a serious question and doesn’t reflect our approach to building the app.”

Photo: dole777/Unsplash

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