Facebook gives parents greater control over Messenger Kids

Facebook introduced Messenger Kids for children back in 2017. The app that allows parents to monitor their kids' Messenger activity ran into trouble last year after a bug allowed children, who were a part of a group, to talk to people who had not been approved by their parents. Now, the company has introduced a bunch of new controls that give parents a greater oversight over their kids' Messenger accounts.

"Today, we're announcing additional tools and features for parents to manage their child's experience in Messenger Kids, and updating our privacy policy...Parents can access these new features in the Messenger Kids Parent Dashboard in the Facebook iOS and Android apps to better understand how their child is using the app," Facebook Product Manager Morgan Brown wrote in a blog post.

The company has added five new controls to the Parent Dashboard of the Kids Messenger app that give parents extensive control over their kids account. Here are the changes that Facebook has made:

-- Facebook has added a Recent Contacts and Chat History option that allows parents to see who their kid is chatting with. They can also see how frequently those conversations happened over the past 30 days.

-- The company has introduced a new Log of Images in Chats feature which allows parents to see the most recent photos and videos that their child has sent and received in their inbox. "If you believe an image or video is not appropriate for your child, you can remove it from your child's message thread and report it," Facebook wrote in the blog post.

-- Facebook has also introduced a new Reported and Blocked Contacts History feature, which gives parents complete access to the list of people that their kids have blocked, unblocked or reported. Parents will also see the reason why their kids have reported a certain contact.

-- The newly introduced Remote Device Logout option allows parents to see all devices where their child is logged in to Messenger Kids. They can also see when their kids have logged out of the app on any device.

-- Parents can also request a copy of their kids' Messenger Kids information. "The download will include a list of your child's contacts as well as the messages, images and videos they have sent and received. Your child will be notified through the Messenger Kids app when you request this information," the company added.

In addition to this, Facebook has introduced a new way using which kids can unblock a blocked contact on their own if they want to restart one-on-one chats with them. These chats with blocked contacts will remain in the Messenger Kids inbox so parents can see them.

"Kids and their blocked contacts will remain visible to one another and will stay in shared group chats, but will not be able to message each other individually," the company added.