Internal documents highlight that Facebook has been actively hiring staff for creating products to target children as young as six years old, to diversify its user base.?
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Reported first by NBCNews, they got access to the document for the internal blog post dated April 9, 2021 (whose author¡¯s name was redacted before getting access to the post).?
Legal counsel for the whistleblower and former Facebook product manager, Frances Haugen had shared the documents as a part of disclosures made to the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) as well as to the Congress in redacted form.
It stated that the company was making a ¡®major investment in youth¡¯ and has ¡®spun up a cross-company virtual team to make safer, more private experiences for the youth that improve their and their household¡¯s well being.¡±
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The blog highlighted that the company was looking to hire several positions as it expanded into offering its entire line of products to users below the current threshold of 13 years. The blog had illustrations highlighting new age groups ranging from kids aged six to nine years old and tweens 10 to 12 years old along with existing brackets for early teens aged 13 to 15 years old, late teens from 16 to 17 years old and adults over the age of 18.
The diagram (dubbed ¡°Today¡±)? shows how the company currently follows the Federal Trade Commission¡¯s current regulations around online services targeted towards children under the age of 13 years old, dubbed Children¡¯s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA). As per the blog post, the COPAA line means users over the age of 13? are treated like other users on the platform, with the platform not available for use for users younger than 13.
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However, another illustration dubbed ¡®And in the future¡¯, doesn¡¯t show these restrictions, instead you see two more categories -- ¡°Tweens 10-12¡± and ¡°Kids 6-9¡±. The slide doesn¡¯t really explain how it is going to circumvent the COPPA rule in future.?
Facebook responded to NBCNews, referring to a blog post it had initially written in response to the Wall Street Journal's coverage that highlighted Facebook trying to attract younger audiences, the social media company said,? ¡°Companies that operate in a highly competitive space ¡ª including the Wall Street Journal ¡ª make efforts to appeal to younger generations. Considering that our competitors are doing the same thing, it would actually be newsworthy if Facebook didn¡¯t do this work.¡±
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