Tech titans make concessions in bid to win kids’ minds, hearts
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. Among their chief concerns: The effects on kids are not yet known, and companies might not have children’s best interests at heart when tech for kids is such a lucrative market.
FACEBOOK MESSENGER KIDS
In December, Facebook created a kids-friendly version of its Messenger app. It has no ads and gives parents plenty of controls over whom their children can chat with.
Parents can now specify the times kids aren’t allowed on — either as a one-time restriction or something recurring, such as after 9 p.m. 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.
Critics, however, say that Messenger Kids isn’t responding to a need, but rather creating one.
YOUTUBE KIDS
Since 2015, Google-owned YouTube has had a child-oriented app, YouTube Kids, described as a “safer” experience for finding “Peppa Pig” episodes or usergenerated videos of people unboxing toys. Nonetheless, the company has been under fire for not vetting out computer-generated, sometimes-disturbing video, such as your favorite cartoon characters having painful dental surgery — or worse.
YouTube said this week that it is overhauling its kids app so parents can limit video to those vetted by humans, rather than computers. With this option, kids can watch only a selection of children’s programming such as “Sesame Street” and PBS Kids. But, the old automated system is on by default, meaning parents need to actively choose the human-only
TECHNOLOGY
option.
AMAZON’S ALEXA
Sure, it’s fun to ask Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant to fart — as many kids have discovered after parents buy an Alexa-enabled Echo speaker. But parents and childhood experts have been wondering what effects smart speakers may have on young kids, who may not quite understand whether Alexa is human and maybe learn from barking orders at her that barking orders is OK.
Alexa will soon thank kids for shouting out questions “nicely” if they say “please,” the online retail giant announced Wednesday. However, this may be appeasing parents just enough to buy more Amazon products. Amazon said it will now sell an $80 Echo Dot aimed at children, complete with colorful cases and a two-year warranty (regular Echo Dots are $50).