Eighteen organizations have filed a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission accusing Facebook of violating the Internet Privacy of Children Act (COPPA).
Groups that sign the complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) argue that Facebook's Messenger Kids app illegally collects children's personal information, even when parental consent is not given.
Furthermore, the letter says that Facebook has not added a COPPA-compliant device to request verifiable parental consent before collecting and managing information about users under 13 years.
The Messenger Kids is a social network designed by Facebook for little ones children between the ages of 6 and 12 who cannot create their own Facebook accounts or use their parent's social network until they are 13 years old.
The organizations that signed the complaint also say that such a mechanism should guarantee that the user who gives his consent for the collection of data is the parent of the child using the Messenger Kids account, which is assumed not to be the case at this point.
"Messenger Kids allows anyone with a Facebook account who claims to be an adult to create and verify a Messenger Kids account," said the letter from the CCFC (Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood). ads) to the FTC.
That is, although Messenger Kids requires the parent's Facebook account to create a Messenger Kids account and add contacts, according to CCFC tests, this is easily bypassed if you simply create a new Facebook account.
Furthermore, the complaint to the FTC states that Facebok Messenger Kids Privacy Policy was designed to be unclear and incomplete and not to follow COPPA's requirements.
