Facebook sought to attract preteens users aged just 10-12 and considered targeting them on PLAYDATES
Leaked Facebook documents show it sees ‘tweens’ aged 10-12 as ‘untapped’ wealth and has spent years trying to get around federal laws banning harvesting of data for under 13s
Facebook has for the last five years explored how to recruit younger peopleThe company was concerned by the rise of rivals like TikTok and SnapchatYoung people aged 10-12 were described as a valuable untapped resource Researchers asked whether Facebook products could be helpful on playdates They also noted how older users spread the ‘myth’ to younger ones that oversharing was dangerous, and urged caution in their postsFacebook-owned Instagram had intended a version for children, but on Monday announced its launch had been postponedThat came amid previous allegations that bosses knew their subsidiary app Instagram made a third of young girls feel bad about their body image On Thursday Facebook will testify before Congress about security for childrenThe company said on Tuesday it was not alone in looking for ways to attract younger users and there was nothing ‘nefarious or secret’ going on
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Facebook described children aged 10-12 as a valuable ‘untapped audience’ and explored ways to make their technology an essential component of playdates, according to leaked internal documents.
The Silicon Valley company formed a team to study ways to get young people to use their platform – concerned in part by the threat from rivals such as TikTok and SnapChat.
‘Why do we care about tweens?’ said one document from 2020, obtained by The Wall Street Journal.
‘They are a valuable but untapped audience.’
Youngsters aged from 10 to 12 were described as a valuable untapped resource in an internal Facebook document, provided to The Wall Street Journal
Mark Zuckerberg is seen in April 2019 speaking at the Facebook F8 Conference at McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, and describing new features on their products which are designed to keep children safe
Facebook, which owns Instagram, is facing growing questions over its influence on young people. On Monday the company announced it was halting the planned creation of an Instagram for Kids – in part after The Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook was aware that Instagram could be harmful for young peoples’ mental health.
‘While we stand by the need to develop this experience, we’ve decided to pause this project,’ Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, wrote in a Monday blog post.
‘This will give us time to work with parents, experts, policymakers and regulators, to listen to their concerns, and to demonstrate the value and importance of this project for younger teens online today.’
Facebook’s top executive in charge of safety, Antigone Davis, will testify on Thursday before the Senate Commerce Subcommittee.
Tuesday’s report will give the senators yet more cause for concern.
The paper, which has been working with a whistleblower, found that Facebook has spent the last five years on making ‘big bets’ on designing products that would appeal to preteens.
One of the slides in Facebook’s internal presentation was entitled: ‘Youth Privacy: Defining five groups to guide age-appropriate design’.
The slide showed ‘where we’ve been, and where we’re going’ – with diagrams showing that currently those aged under 13 are not theoretically allowed to use the site, but in the future there may be no restrictions, and instead content ‘tailored to user maturity’.
Even ‘young kids’ from 0-4 were included in the chart, suggesting that Facebook may eventually try and recruit infants to their site.
Another slide asked: ‘Is there a way to leverage playdates to drive word of hand/growth among kids?’
Researchers wanted to know whether the youngsters were using Messenger Kids – Facebook’s early foray into recruiting children to their world, from 2017 – on playdates, and if so, how.
They did so despite sharing research which revealed youngsters didn’t use Messenger Kids on playdates because they were too busy enjoying real-life interaction with friends.
They also noted that older teenagers were warning their younger relatives about the dangers of over-sharing on social media, and posting too much information that they might later regret.
‘We need to understand if this influence over preteen sharing holds at scale,’ the researcher wrote in a document posted to Facebook’s internal message board early this year.
‘If it is common that teens are discouraging preteens from sharing, there are obvious implications for creation and the ecosystem both in the near and longer-term as preteens are the next generation coming onto the platform.’
The authors of the slides said that it was a ‘myth’ about Instagram that sharing too much was negative.
Facebook’s concerns about rivals appear to be warranted.
‘Global teen penetration on FB is low, and acquisition appears to be slowing down,’ according to a March 2021 document obtained by the paper.
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, is seen in February 2020 at the Munich Security Conference
Facebook put together a team to explore how to encourage young people to use their platforms
Facebook’s top safety officer, Antigone Davis (seen above in New York in 2018), is set to testify before a Senate subcommittee on Thursday
In the U.S., the daily number of teens using Facebook has fallen by 19 per cent over the past two years, another document noted, and would likely fall by an additional 45 per cent by 2023.
Furthermore, their rivals are gaining.
Last year a Pew Research Center survey found that among 9-to-11-year-olds, 30 per cent said they used TikTok and 22 per cent said they used Snapchat.
However, only 11 per cent said they used Instagram and 6 per cent used Facebook.
One 11 year-old boy questioned by Facebook researchers branded the giant’s eponymous social media site as being for ‘old people’ aged 40 and up.
Bosses are said to be keen to get teenagers using Instagram in the hopes of it becoming a gateway to setting up a Facebook profile.
Facebook on Tuesday said the research was ‘to support families’ and insisted there was ‘nothing nefarious or secretive about this work.’
They said in a statement: ‘We want to keep young people safe on our apps, and that includes making sure that those who aren’t old enough to be using them, don’t.
‘We’ll continue investing in research to make sure that we do this work even more effectively.’
Facebook said that they, like many social media companies, regularly conduct research into their users.
They admitted that the idea of trying to turn playdates into ways of bringing new people to their platforms was clumsy, describing it as ‘an insensitive way to pose a serious question and doesn’t reflect our approach to building the app.’
