Facebook made it a priority to create a version of Instagram for children under 13 years old. The information comes from Buzzfeed News, which obtained an internal company publication in which the vice president of product for the social photography network, Vishal Shah, announces the start of work on the platform and confirms that the project is at the beginning of the company's to-do list.
“We will build a new youth pillar within the product community group with a focus on two things: accelerating our integrity and privacy work to ensure the safest experience possible for young people and building a version of Instagram that allows people under the age of 13 years old to use the social network safely for the first time” writes Shah in the post, which also confirms that the project will be supervised by the president Adam Mosseri and led by Facebook vice president, Pavni Diwanji – the same person who worked on creating the YouTube Kids when I was in Google.
While the plan is a way for the company to get around its own user policy – which prohibits the entry of people under the age of 13 – it also follows this week the inclusion of new policies that seek to guarantee the safety of young people on the platform, with unfollowed adults being blocked from interacting by these accounts. The problem is that there are many children on the social network lying about their age to have an account, which considerably reduces the effectiveness of measures of this type – which in turn favors the intention of a project of this type.
It's worth remembering that this isn't the first time that a Facebook social network has gained a children's version. O Messenger Since 2017, it has had a Kids variant, aiming precisely to combat incidents of pedophilia on the chat app.
