Facebook's Messenger Kids allowed kids to talk to unapproved adults

Facebook's Messenger Kids app is meant to offer "safer and more fun video calls and messaging" for children under the age 13. Now it has been revealed the app allowed children to talk to strangers.

As The Verge reports, Facebook has for the past week been sending out an alert to parents informing them that a "technical error" allowed individuals who weren't parent-approved to enter a group chat with their children.

The alert reads as follows:

The design flaw occurred because Facebook didn't realize/foresee that individuals parent-approved for one child wouldn't also be approved for another. In a group chat situation it meant the child initiating the chat could invite approved people who then were able to chat with other children they weren't parent-approved to chat with. As Messenger Kids is subject to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), this may count as a violation. Read more...