Facebook Messenger Kids is Blamed for Privacy Standards Noncompliance

by Samuel White

After the infringement with the Messenger Kids that happened this summer, Facebook speakers responded to the Congress accusation.

It all started with the vulnerability which let young users initiate chat groups with unauthorized users. But the initial goal of this service was to protect minors from communication with strangers limiting contacts only with friends.

Even though Facebook didn't make an admission they violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (or COPPA), several Senators insisted on confirmation documents. Facebook had to prove Messenger Kids is the safe place for children' communication, which parents can trust.

"We believe... that Messenger Kids complies with COPPA, and we are committed to continually improving it to ensure we not only comply with COPPA, but we meet and exceed the high standards of parents and families", Kevin Martin, the public policy VP replied to lawmakers.

On August 27, 2019, FB responded in a letter pointing out strict facts about the time of flaw occurrence and fixing. The defect was discovered in October 2018, ten months after the app's introduction. But Facebook exposed the error on June 12, 2019, and changed the code to repair the flaw the next day. On July 15, almost a month later, parents got notifications and the information leaked to journalists.

Then Martin added that "Messenger Kids takes children's privacy and security seriously, and we are committed to ensuring any technical errors are investigated and addressed quickly".
Anyway, statesmen were not satisfied and continued critics towards Facebook's youngsters' privacy approach in the social media, demanding implementation on hipper secured methods of the service encryption.

While Facebook is busy with Libra fundraising, the privacy troubles double one-by-one, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) called for regulation of other privacy violation cases with $5 billion reparations. Some faultfinders consider the sum of regulation too smooth punishment.
It is still unknown whether the Messenger Kinds will be included in the list of suits against Facebook, but the social media titan specified they aware inquiries of FTC and keep close cooperation with the commission.