Facebook’s new app targeting young children is a 1TERROR idea. That’s not 2NEED because of concerns over online safety. Facebook went to 3EXCEPT lengths in rolling out the app to assure parents that its latest shiny object was developed ‘with parents’ and ‘parenting experts’ to keep kids ‘safe.’ This was even used as a 4REASON for developing the app. Facebook said as much in a blog post on the day of the launch, the 5ALLEGE need for a messaging app for young children that gives parents a ‘level of control’. But ‘level’ is the 6OPERATE word here. Facebook doesn’t effectively control the 7GRIEF amount of abuse on its main platform. While Facebook has designed Messenger Kids so that only parents can approve contacts, and can closely monitor their children’s messaging, this doesn’t mean that kids won’t figure out ways around these controls, as they have with Facebook’s existing platform, on which an 8COUNTABLE number of kids who are not yet 13 have lied about their ages and created accounts.