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Facebook developing teen messaging app that can be monitored by parents

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By Jennifer Faull, Deputy Editor

June 3, 2017 | 2 min read

Facebook is readying the launch of a new app aimed at teens that will allow parents to monitor who their kids are speaking to.

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Facebook

Called Talk, it will be aimed at users who are 13 years or older, according to The Information.

Facebook will put in place a number of features aimed at preventing online stalking and grooming and will also allow parents to “fully control” who their children are in contact with.

The code for the new service was spotted by The Information which suggests the Talk app will be linked to a parent’s Messenger chat app.

“Talk is a messaging app where you fully control the contacts,” and “Your child uses the Talk app to chat with you in Messenger,” it said in the buried code.

Facebook has not commented.

It comes after Facebook, among other tech platfroms, was called out by the Children's Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, for failing to protect children.

“It is wholly irresponsible to let them roam in a world for which they are ill-prepared,” she said. “It is vital that children understand what they agree to when joining social media platforms, that their privacy is better protected, and they can have content posted about them removed quickly should they wish to.”

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