Greg's Corner

Are we letting Facebook raise our children?

Back in late 2017, Facebook announced an app called Messenger Kids. It’s a Facebook Messenger for kids under 13, the age you need to be in order to sign up for a Facebook account according to their terms of service. At first, Messenger Kids required the child’s parents to be friends with them on the app, however, more recently, Facebook did away with that feature at what they say was parent request. Although, parents still need to approve who is on their child’s friends list. Now, Facebook is bringing Messenger Kids to Canada.

From a safety standpoint, Messenger Kids seems like a pretty safe app but still has its drawbacks. Too many parents sign their kids on to an app then let them run free on it. While there shouldn’t be the problem of random strangers messaging your child, there is always a risk when you allow a child to use any online social platform unfettered.

However, let’s discuss what this is really about, Facebook indoctrination. It seems like Facebook wants to make sure that American and Canadian kids are being raised on Facebook from an early age. With so many reports telling us that teens and young adults are supposedly flocking to Snapchat in droves, Facebook may want to make sure future generations will be solely reliant on Facebook. Is the world of Facebook with its conspiracy theories, flat earth tropes, anti-vaccine gibberish, and global issues being reduced to memes the world we really want our children being raised on?