A team group of educators, health experts and educators is calling on Facebook to end Messenger Kids.
The organizations sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asking the company to discontinue Messenger Kids and let kids enjoy their childhood.
If you do not know it, Messenger Kids is a version of Facebook Messenger aimed at children aged six (!) to twelve. Through the app, their parents are in control, choosing who can be friends with their children. The "revolutionary" application also allows parents to see exactly what is happening during the conversations.
However, the app still allows Facebook to children.
As soon as the application was announced, parents were concerned that Facebook is targeting young children.
As the The Washington Post, this concern was compiled into a letter by The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), supported by many other organizations.
In the letter (PDF) CCFC and its supporters call on Facebook to "stop Messenger Kids", arguing that excessive use of digital devices and social media is harmful to children and adolescents, as this new application is likely to undermine healthy development".
The letter also states that the children "are not old enough to begin their tour of the intricacies of online relationships" and "have not fully developed their understanding of privacy."
Recent studies are reported showing how to use them social media can negatively affect children in a number of ways.
Facebook, however, is reportedly already responding, saying in various publications that it is not planning to stop Messenger Kids.
Facebook says it has tried to make sure that Messenger Kids is as innocuous as possible.
However according to parents, it is still an application designed to connect to Internet children from the age of six.
Would you let your kids start using Messenger Kids at such an age?