Photographer: Gabby Jones / Bloomberg
Photographer: Gabby Jones / Bloomberg
Facebook Inc. is building a version of the photo-sharing tool Instagram specifically for children under 13, an attempt to get its popular products into the hands of the next generation of internet users.
The new app was announced internally on Thursday, but has not yet been launched. Instagram currently requires users to be at least 13 years old. BuzzFeed News previously posted on Instagram Kids.
Instagram, which was bought by Facebook almost $ 1 billion a decade ago, has become one of its most popular products at a time when its most important social networking property is not appealing to some younger users.
“Children are increasingly asking their parents if they can join apps that can help them keep up with their friends,” Facebook spokesman Joe Osborne said in a statement. ‘At the moment, there are not many options for parents, so we are working on building additional products, as we did with Messenger Kids, which are suitable for children, run by parents. We are bringing a parental control experience to Instagram to help kids keep up with their friends, discover new hobbies and interests, and more. ”
Messenger Kids is a version of Facebook’s messaging app for teens. That app contains a number of parental controls, but some children have previously had the opportunity to talk to people their parents did not approve of. The incident has raised regulators’ concerns that it does not adequately protect children.