U.S. regulators say Facebook misled parents and failed to protect the privacy of children using its Messenger Kids app, including misrepresenting the access it provided to app developers to private user data.
As a result, The Federal Trade Commision on Wednesday to a 2020 privacy order with Facebook 鈥� now called Meta 鈥� that would prohibit it from profiting from data it collects on users under 18. This would include data collected through its virtual-reality products. The FTC said the company has failed to fully comply with the 2020 order.
Meta would also be subject to other limitations, including with its use of face-recognition technology and be required to provide additional privacy protections for its users.
鈥淔acebook has repeatedly violated its privacy promises,鈥� said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC鈥檚 Bureau of Consumer Protection. 鈥淭he company鈥檚 recklessness has put young users at risk, and Facebook needs to answer for its failures.鈥�
Meta called the announcement a 鈥減olitical stunt.鈥�
鈥淒espite three years of continual engagement with the FTC around our agreement, they provided no opportunity to discuss this new, totally unprecedented theory. Let鈥檚 be clear about what the FTC is trying to do: usurp the authority of Congress to set industry-wide standards and instead single out one American company while allowing Chinese companies, like TikTok, to operate without constraint on American soil,鈥� Meta said in a prepared statement.
The Menlo Park, California company added that it will "vigorously fight" the FTC's action and expects to prevail.
Facebook , pitching it as a way for children to chat with family members and friends approved by their parents. The app doesn鈥檛 give kids separate Facebook or Messenger accounts. Rather, it works as an extension of a parent鈥檚 account, and parents get controls, such as the ability to decide with whom their kids can chat.
At the time, Facebook said Messenger Kids wouldn't show ads or collect data for marketing, though it would collect some data it said was necessary to run the service.
But child-development experts .
In early 2018, a group of 100 experts, advocates and parenting organizations contested Facebook鈥檚 claims that the app was filling a need kids had for a messaging service. The group included nonprofits, psychiatrists, pediatricians, educators and the children鈥檚 music singer Raffi Cavoukian.
鈥淢essenger Kids is not responding to a need 鈥� it is creating one,鈥� the letter said. 鈥淚t appeals primarily to children who otherwise would not have their own social media accounts.鈥� Another passage criticized Facebook for 鈥渢argeting younger children with a new product.鈥�
Facebook, in response to the letter, said at the time that the app 鈥渉elps parents and children to chat in a safer way,鈥� and emphasized that parents are 鈥渁lways in control鈥� of their kids鈥� activity.
The FTC now says this has not been the case. The 2020 privacy order, , required an independent assessor to evaluate the company鈥檚 privacy practices. The FTC said the assessor 鈥渋dentified several gaps and weaknesses in Facebook鈥檚 privacy program.鈥�
The FTC also said Facebook, from late 2017 until 2019, 鈥渕isrepresented that parents could control whom their children communicated with through its Messenger Kids product.鈥�
鈥淒espite the company鈥檚 promises that children using Messenger Kids would only be able to communicate with contacts approved by their parents, children in certain circumstances were able to communicate with unapproved contacts in group text chats and group video calls,鈥� the FTC said.
Meta critics applauded the FTC's action. Jeffrey Chester, the executive director of the nonprofit Center for Digital Democracy, called it a 鈥渁 long-overdue intervention into what has become a huge national crisis for young people.鈥�
Meta, and with its platforms like Instagram and Facebook, Chester added, 鈥渁re at the center of a powerful commercialized social media system that has spiraled out of control, threatening the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.鈥�
The company, he added, has not done enough to address existing problems 鈥� and is now unleashing 鈥渆ven more powerful data gathering and targeting tactics fueled by immersive content, virtual reality and artificial intelligence, while pushing youth further into the metaverse with no meaningful safeguards.鈥�
As part of the proposed changes to the FTC鈥檚 2020 order (which was announced in 2019 and finalized later), Meta would also be required to pause launching new products and services without 鈥渨ritten confirmation from the assessor that its privacy program is in full compliance鈥� with the order.
Meta has 30 days to respond to the FTC's latest action.
Barbara Ortutay, The Associated Press
