Facebook described children as young as 10 as an “untapped audience” and considered targeting playdates as a way to drive growth among kids, according to leaked internal documents.
The company formed a team to study preteens and how its platforms can compete with newer social media apps like Snapchat and TikTok, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation.
“Why do we care about tweens?” read one document from 2020, obtained by the Journal.
“They are a valuable but untapped audience.”
Over the past five years, Facebook, which also owns Instagram, has made what it described internally as “big bets” on products meant specifically to appeal to preteens, according to a document from earlier this year, obtained by the Journal.
“With the ubiquity of tablets and phones, kids are getting on the internet as young as six years old. We can’t ignore this and we have a responsibility to figure it out,” said a 2018 document labeled confidential, according to the Journal. “Imagine a Facebook experience designed for youth.”
One such bet on younger users would be Messenger Kids, a video-and-chat app that lets parents set up controls, which Facebook launched in 2017. The app is designed for kids ages 6 through 12 and meets legal limits on data collection regarding young kids.
“Are kids are [sic] using Messenger Kids during playdates, and if so, how are they using the app and talking about the app?” asked a 2019 document, obtained by the Journal.
“Is there a way to leverage playdates to drive word of hand/growth among kids?”
Facebook and Instagram currently prohibit children younger than 13 from using the apps, but the company has still sought ways to recruit kids younger than that with Messenger Kids, for example, according to the Journal.
“Our ultimate goal is messaging primacy with US tweens, which may also lead to winning with teens,” one leaked documents said of the app, according to the Journal.
After the 2017 launch of Messenger Kids, though, internal Facebook researchers found the app was failing to win over the next generation, who lost interest in the app around age 10.
Those kids also weren’t interested in the Facebook or Instagram apps and preferred Snapchat and, more recently, TikTok, according to the internal research cited by the Journal.
“Global teen penetration on FB is low, and acquisition appears to be slowing down,” a document from March said.
In the US, the daily number of teens using Facebook has fallen by 19 percent over the past two years, another document reportedly noted, and would likely fall by an additional 45 percent by 2023.
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, disputed the Journal’s characterization of the internal research.
“If kids are under 13, they’re not allowed on Instagram and they should not be using our service,” he reiterated.
“It’s not new and it’s not a secret that social-media companies try to understand how teens and preteens use technology. Like all technology companies, of course, we want to appeal to the next generation, but that’s entirely different from the false assertion that we knowingly attempt to recruit people who aren’t old enough to use our apps.”
He added that the company removed more than 600,000 accounts in the past three months for violating its rules on age limits.
The report comes after Facebook announced earlier this week a pause on development of a version of Instagram aimed at kids under the age of 13 that had sparked a backlash from child safety advocates and lawmakers.
Earlier findings revealed by the Journal showed that internally, Facebook researchers knew Instagram had certain negative effects on teens, such as exacerbating anxiety, depression and body-image issues, while publicly, executives downplayed such concerns.
It also comes one day before Facebook’s global head of safety, Antigone Davis, is expected to appear before the Senate Commerce Subcommittee, where she’s expected to face questions about the findings of the Journal investigation as well as about Facebook’s now-shelved plans for an “Instagram for kids.”