Your child does not need a Facebook account, or even a regular Facebook Messenger account, though you will need to create a Messenger Kids account for your child, which only requires their name. At that point, your child’s device can be handed back to them so that they can start using Messenger Kids. Once that’s done, you’ll need to create a Messenger Kids account for your child (all you need to do is provide their name - no other data is requested).

Once you download the app on your child's device, you need to authenticate your child’s device using your own Facebook username and password. How do you set up Facebook Messenger Kids?įirst, download the Messenger Kids app from the Apple App Store, the Google Play Store or the Amazon Appstore Adult friends will receive their messages via the regular Facebook Messenger app. Kids can also access a library of child-appropriate GIFs, frames, stickers, masks, and drawing tools. They’ll be able to see when their contacts are online, and then they can send them photos, videos, or text messages. They can start a one-on-one or group video chat with parent-approved contacts - directly from the home screen. Messenger Kids is full of features just for kids. The app itself is controlled through a parent’s Facebook account, and it does not require the child to have an actual Facebook account.

Kids can use it to video chat with a grandparent or message a cousin or send a decorated photo to a friend. Facebook described the standalone app as an easier way for children to “safely video chat and message with family and friends when they can’t be together in person”.

What is Facebook Live, how does it work, and which devices support it?įacebook spoke to “thousands of parents”, as well as associations like the National PTA and various parenting experts, and it found a need for a children’s messaging app with parental controls.

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Facebook messenger on fire tablet