Parents, whose kids use the Facebook Messenger Kids app, will now be able to see recent contacts and chat history of their kids’ interactions, images kids sent and received in their inbox, and a list of contacts kids have blocked/unblocked, Facebook’s product manager Morgan Brown said in a blog post on February 4. Parents will also be able to log their kids out of the Messenger Kids app remotely, and download their kids’ information including their contacts as well as the messages, images and videos they have sent and received. Parents can access these new features in the Messenger Kids Parent Dashboard in the Facebook iOS and Android apps. Messenger Kids was launched in 2017, and is a video chat and messaging app for kids aged between 6-12. The app is not available in India. It is also worth noting that there is no way that Messenger Kids can ascertain that the person using the app is indeed a kid, and while its user onboarding process is marginally better than YouTube Kids' for instance since it relies on a parents' Facebook account to set up an account, it still doesn't ensure that kids will remain protected while using the app. Updates to parental controls on Messenger Kids: See conversation partners, and frequency of conversations: Parents can see a child’s conversation partners and whether they’re video-chatting or texting, along with the conversation frequency over the past 30 days. Access photos and videos kids sent and received: Parents will be able to…
