Facebook Debuts Messenger for Kids in India, Rolls Out 'Supervised Feature' for Parents

As we are confined to stay indoors due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Facebook has rolled out its children-focused video chat service - Messenger Kids in India. The app comes with a 'supervised feature', allowing parents to have more controls to approve new connections. The Messenger Kids app, originally launched in the United States in 2017 for kids under 13, is now available across 75 countries worldwide. The fact that it has rolled out this feature in India, shows how Facebook values its market in India, its second-biggest customer base after the US, with 400 million users.

The new "Supervised Feature" replaces the current feature where it didn't allow children add any new contacts at all. Parents will have their prerogatives now. They can choose to allow their kids to accept, reject or even remove old contacts. For instance, once a child accepts a new contact invitation, a notification will go to the parents' dashboard to override the child's decision. Moreover, parents would get notified when the child decides to join any groups. However, once approved, kids will be able to chat with each other individually but with their parents moderating the group.

Therefore, it leads us to the question - will it help parents to have a tighter control to ensure that their kids are having an easier and safer connection? It seems so. For instance, under the same feature, parents will be allowed to make the child's name and photo visible only to a select group of non-contacts. They will also have the option to make it visible only to friends added to the kid's contacts and their parents or children of the parent’s Facebook friends.

With this feature, parents can also determine which adults can add their children into groups. Therefore, parents can use this feature to connect their kids with their teachers to have a virtual classroom session or a workshop, as most schools remain worldwide because of the lockdown due to COVID-19. It is safe to assume that this new app Apart from India, the expansion is applicable to Australia, Brazil, Colombia, and Indonesia among others. It is also available to neighbouring Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan as well. Here's how you can download and use the Facebook Messenger app for kids.