Last December, Facebook was met with a fair bit of controversy surrounding the release of its Messenger Kids app. Messenger Kids is a tweaked version of the company's Messenger app that's designed to be used by kids that are 13 years-old and younger, and after coming to Amazon's Fire tablets in January, the app is now available for all Android phones and tablets via the Google Play Store.

Children can use Messenger Kids to talk to friends and family members via text-based chat and video calls and parents have full control over who they can contact. There's a wide variety of kid-friendly stickers and filters that can be used to edit photos and use during video chats, and parents can get in touch with their kids by using the regular Messenger app.

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Kids using Messenger Kids aren't required to have a Facebook account to use the app, and Facebook's ensured that it took the privacy of its younger uses seriously when creating it.

I don't see the controversy surrounding Messenger Kids ending anytime soon, but at least from my perspective, this seems like a lot better way to let your kiddos connect with parents, friends, and other family members rather than exposing them to the full app.

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