Facebook Creates A Video Messaging App For Kids And How It Fits Into A More Connected World

I have become fascinated of late with the potential for the growth and blossoming of a new sort of global community of human beings grounded in open communication between any two people, anywhere in the world. I saw the potential of this through my own interest in video and, more recently, 360 degree video.

As I thought about the potential of such an interconnected world I realized that it will probably be the next generation, those in elementary grades in school and younger now, who will probably usher in this New World Order. I say this because I see how easily they are adapting to video and 2 way communication in their lives. Out little girl is 5 and she already knows how to use Facetime and Google Hangouts to talk to us as well as having her own YouTube channel and streaming her game play on Roblox and Minecraft to that channel.

I was so into the idea that I actually built a website to illustrate the concept. The idea was for parents to create accounts on the site and then connect with other parents who wanted to create “virtual play dates”. I thought that kids would make a great place to start because they (especially the younger ones) are less dependent on language to meet other kids and to play together.

kids hangouts.png

The website was never promoted as I don’t really have any funds to put into it or the time to manage it but it remains for now as an example. The more research I do into the general concept of a more connected world through video, the more cool stuff that I find that could make such a site as mine even better.
One drawback to the Kids Hangouts concept was screen size. A monitor is not that big and even a TV is not huge as a portal to allow kids to play together on opposite sides of the screen. Then I found the Portals Project which has solved that problem by creating full wall video connections within their Portal containers. A great solution but more for classrooms than for basic day to day connectedness.
Today I saw that Facebook has developed a chat app for kids which will be able to do pretty much the same thing as the site I built. From what I read on the iTunes page linked above the app will be under parental control and limited to designated family and friends. Here are some points from that page:
• Creating a Messenger Kids account for a child does not create a Facebook account for them.
• Parents and guardians use their own Facebook accounts to authorize their kids’ Messenger Kids accounts.
• Parents control their child’s contact list and can remove contacts at any time.
• Kids have the option to report or block contacts and report inappropriate content. If a child submits a report, their parent or guardian will be notified.
Obviously these are necessary controls so it is kind of cool but does little in the spirit of more global connectivity (unless the individual parents want it to and make friends around the world). There is the second big obstacle to global connectedness, the potential awkwardness of it. I realized this as I was working on the website. I mean, where do you go to meet people online? Most social networks do not really seem to be set up for it and more than one is blocked in some of the bigger countries in the world (China for example).
So if you really want to meet people from all over the world and be able to interact with them one to one in a sort of community the options are really limited. Sure there are places to find people but not for the average citizen of the world unless you are looking for dating, etc there is not much out there to my knowledge. This is one place where the Portals Project has shown the path to follow. It is a project that is not too hard to find and it brings people together who are encouraged to just get to know each other.
I think what Portals needs is more of an online community where users can connect with each other around the world. I do not know their plans for the future but some kind of social aspect would be a real plus. I recently experienced a Portal in Times Square and saw for myself how powerful they were in bringing people together. So this new app from Facebook is a good illustration of how the world is becoming more connected every day by video communication but still not what I would like to see or what I think the world needs to have in place to facilitate its growth as a community.