F’BOOK ‘LIKES’ KIDDIES
Tried to lure 10-yr.-olds
Facebook described children as young as 10 as an “untapped audience” and considered targeting playdates as a way to drive growth among kids, according to leaked internal documents.
The company formed a team to study preteens and how its platforms can compete with newer social-media apps like Snapchat and TikTok, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation.
“Why do we care about tweens?” read one document from 2020, obtained by the Journal. “They are a valuable but untapped audience.”
Over the past five years, Facebook, which also owns Instagram, has made what it described internally as “big bets” on products meant specifically to appeal to preteens, according to a document from earlier this year, obtained by the Journal. “With the ubiquity of
tablets and phones, kids are getting on the Internet as young as 6 years old. We can’t ignore this, and we have a responsibility to figure it out,” said a 2018 document labeled confidential, according to the Journal. “Imagine a Facebook experience designed for youth.”
One such bet on younger users would be Messenger Kids, a videoand-chat app that lets parents set up controls, which Facebook launched in 2017. The app is designed for kids ages 6 through 12 and meets legal limits on data collection regarding young kids. “Are kids are [sic] using Messenger Kids during playdates, and if so, how are they using the app and talking about the app?” asked a 2019 document, obtained by the Journal.
“Is there a way to leverage playdates to drive word of hand/growth among kids?”
Facebook and Instagram currently prohibit children younger than 13 from using the apps, but the company has still sought ways to recruit kids younger than that with Messenger Kids, for example, according to the Journal.
“Our ultimate goal is messaging primacy with US tweens, which may also lead to winning with teens,” one leaked documents said of the app, according to the Journal.
After the 2017 launch of Messenger Kids, though, internal Facebook researchers found the app was failing to win over the next generation, who lost interest in the app at around age 10. Those kids also weren’t interested in the Facebook or Instagram apps and preferred Snapchat and, more recently, TikTok, according to the internal research cited by the Journal.
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, disputed the Journal’s characterization of the internal research.
“It’s not a secret that social-media companies try to understand how teens and preteens use technology. Like all technology companies, of course, we want to appeal to the next generation,” he said.