New York: Facebook is adding a “sleep” mode to its Messenger Kids service to let parents limit when their kids can use it. It’s the latest concession that tech companies are making as critics question whether they should be targeting kids at all.
Rather than kill the services completely, as some critics want, Facebook, Amazon and Google are
mostly tinkering at the edges. That leaves open the underlying questions of whether their products truly serve a need for the youngest set and if they are good for them.
Facebook has created a kids-friendly version of its Messenger app where parents can now specify the times kids aren’t allowed on — either as a onetime restriction or something recurring, such as after 9 pm every school night. While the app is in sleep mode, kids will get a message when they open it telling them so, and they won’t be able to use it. However, critics say that Messenger Kids isn’t responding to a need, but rather creating one. “It appeals primarily to children who otherwise would not have their own social media accounts,” states a letter signed by 100 child development experts and advocates. Merely offering time controls falls short of killing the app completely.
On the other hand, the Google-owned service — You-Tube — in 2015 launched a child-oriented app, YouTube Kids, described as a “safer” experience for finding “Peppa Pig” episodes or user-generated videos of people unboxing toys. Nonetheless, the company has been under fire for not vetting out computergenerated, sometimes-disturbing video. However, this week, YouTube said it is overhauling its kids app so parents can limit video to those vetted by humans, rather than computers.
However, the shortcomings for this change is that the old automated system is on by default, meaning parents need to actively choose the humanonly option.
Similarly, with Amazon Echos becoming part of modern homes, the tech giant has announced a range of new features aimed at making virtual assistant Alexa more child-friendly. Alexa will soon thank kids for shouting out questions “nicely” if they say “please”. The new response is part of a kid-friendly update that’s coming in May, giving parents more control over the voice assistant. Adults can also set Alexa to go silent at bedtime or block music with explicit lyrics. This may be appeasing parents just enough to buy more Amazon products. AP
Source | Times of India | 30th April 2018
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