Criticism surrounding the development of social media platforms for young children comes from parents, experts and regulators, among others. They are concerned about privacy, data collection and excessive use of such apps. But also about abuse of adults, cyberbullying and therefore the negative consequences for the (mental) health and self-image of children.
And those concerns are not unfounded. For years, various studies have shown that teenagers are being bullied on Instagram and other social media. And now Facebook's own research is being added to that.
Why does Facebook want it then?
Social apps Snapchat and TikTok have managed to attract huge numbers of young users since their launch (in whatsapp number list 2011 and 2017). Something Facebook has not really managed to do so far. In fact, Facebook is losing young people to these apps. And that hurts.
That's why the tech giant has been working on Facebook versions for children aged 6 and up and ' preteens ' between 9 and 12 since 2017, under fierce criticism . In short: the young target group that is banned from Facebook and Instagram because of the age limit of 13. Incidentally, this is also officially the minimum age for Snapchat and TikTok.
This young target group is of course a potential goldmine for Facebook. Children get used to (or addicted to) social media at an early age. And with a bit of luck, they move on to other Facebook apps at the age of 13.
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