If you take a look at the terms and conditions for services like Facebook and Instagram, you’ll see that technically you’re not supposed to have an account if you’re under the age of thirteen. Not that that’s stopped kids from signing up in droves anyway, but apparently Facebook doesn’t have enough child-like eyeballs under its control.
To that end, the service is considering creating an Instagram service for youngsters under the age of thirteen — the demographic the company doesn’t market to just yet. Just imagine how much user data Facebook can harvest if it starts around the time you enter primary school.
Instagram for everybody
Kids are increasingly asking their parents if they can join apps that help them keep up with their friends. A version of Instagram where parents have control, like we did w/ Messenger Kids, is something we’re exploring. We’ll share more down the road.
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) March 18, 2021
The development for an Instagram for kids was first spotted in a memo obtained by Buzzfeed News, and later confirmed by Instagram head Adam Mosseri. The memo, from the company’s vice president of product Vishal Shah, explains that the service is looking to create a safe environment for younger kids to interact online.
“We will be building a new youth pillar within the Community Product Group to focus on two things: (a) accelerating our integrity and privacy work to ensure the safest possible experience for teens and (b) building a version of Instagram that allows people under the age of 13 to safely use Instagram for the first time,” Shah said.
Doing this correctly isn’t a small task. There are bullying considerations to bear in mind, content restrictions will most likely be in place (and will have to be managed) and there’s also the threat of predators impersonating children on the yet-to-be announced service to be taken into account. If the service manages to pull it off, then it’ll be the latest in a series of moves to drive further growth over at Facebook. At present, however, it’s more of an idea than a fledgling product. There’s currently no “detailed plan” for what such a service might look like but we’d imagine there would be a strong online shopping component involved. And that’s probably not a good thing.
Source: Buzzfeed News
