Flaw in Facebook's Messenger Kids Exposed Children to Unauthorized Chats
July 23 2019 - 11:44AM
Dow Jones News
By Sarah E. Needleman
A technical error recently allowed children on a Facebook Inc.
messaging app to interact with users who weren't approved by their
parents, the latest misstep that further dents the company's track
record on privacy and security.
Messenger Kids launched in late 2017 as a stand-alone app that
allows children between the ages of 6 and 12 to send messages and
videos to contacts their parents signed off on. Facebook hasn't
released a public statement on the error, but a spokesman confirmed
that it notified thousands of parents of children who had been
included in the compromised chats and said those conversations had
been turned off.
The incident was first reported by The Verge, a technology news
website.
Facebook has been under pressure from privacy advocates who
argue Messenger Kids is a danger to its young users and should be
shut down. Last year several privacy-advocacy groups asked the
Federal Trade Commission to investigate the tech giant for
potentially violating federal laws governing children's privacy
online. In January, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood said
it joined 14 other groups in sending a letter to Facebook Chief
Executive Mark Zuckerberg for a second time urging the
discontinuation of Messenger Kids.
The latest issue also comes as the FTC is expected as soon as
this week to announce a settlement with Facebook that includes a
roughly $5 billion fine over its user-privacy practices. The agency
is also expected to impose a mandate to create an internal privacy
team for vetting major new products.
Facebook said when it unveiled Messenger Kids that the app was
developed in response to growing safety concerns from parents whose
children wanted to interact online. It drew criticism from some
child-development experts, though, who argued that the app could
endanger children by exposing them to inappropriate messages and
getting them hooked on social media.
Other social platforms have also created products for children
in recent years, such as Alphabet Inc.'s YouTube.
The FTC is also expected to soon announce a settlement with
YouTube over alleged violations of children's privacy protections
after privacy advocates called on the agency to remove all content
on the video platform directed at kids and impose tens of billions
of dollars in fines.
Earlier this year, the FTC announced a $5.7 million settlement
with TikTok over allegations that the social-media app illegally
collected personal information from children. The agency, which
said the TikTok fine was the largest civil penalty assessed in a
children's privacy case, claimed that TikTok violated a law that
requires websites and online services aimed at children to obtain
parental consent before collecting personal information from anyone
under the age of 13. TikTok in a blog post said it was committed to
protecting its users' data and that it created tools for parents to
protect their teens and enabled additional privacy settings.
Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 23, 2019 11:29 ET (15:29 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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