The hope is this will help parents monitor for issues related to bullying or abuse. (All reports are handled by humans, the company said.) In addition to needing a parent to create an account and add new contacts, kids cannot delete any messages, and parents are notified any time a kid reports a message.
Instead, the company stressed that it is taking security for Messenger Kids very seriously. In a press briefing with reporters to unveil the new product, Facebook didn’t talk much about that benefit. It’s easy to imagine how a 10-year-old who uses Messenger Kids and creates a network of contacts on the service will eventually graduate to regular Messenger, and likely Facebook. Facebook is losing some of its teen users to other apps, like Snapchat or Instagram - luckily, Facebook owns Instagram - which is one reason Facebook must like the idea of Messenger Kids. Of course, getting preteens onto Messenger has one other major benefit: It offers Facebook a chance to get in front of the youngest generation of internet users before potential competitors. The point is to give kids a messaging app that isn’t tied to a phone number, and that won’t lead to messages from people the child doesn’t know.
If a kid wants to chat with a friend from school, for example, her parent would need to be Facebook friends with a parent of the other child, and the two parents would need to agree to a connection request.