Unless you are one of the very few parents who don’t allow their kids access to technology, your child probably has a phone or a tablet that they use to play, watch videos, and communicate with their peers. With technology being everywhere, it can be tough to take away our children’s phones and make them feel left out. So, for the safest experience for your kids, social media companies are gradually making versions of their apps more user-friendly. Similar to what google did with YouTube Kids, a kid-friendly version of YouTube, Facebook has a messenger edition that your child can use without you worrying about them as it gives the parents sufficient control over their child’s activities.
In December 2017, Messenger Kids was developed as an alternative to regular Facebook messenger but with a young audience in mind. They’re specifically aged between 6 to 12 years old. although it started out as an app only for Apple users (iPhone and iPad), Facebook has extended its service to Android users as well to make all children with mobile/tablets able to remotely and safely contact their family and friends.
As a parent, all you need to register a Messenger Kids account is your own Facebook profile since children under the age of 13 can’t have a Facebook account according to US federal law. Instead of using a phone number to register, you register with your child’s first and last name and is controlled through the parent’s Facebook account.
Contents
Setting Up the App
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Download the App
To download the Messenger Kids app, using your kid’s phone or tablet, go to either the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, depending on the operating system of your child’s device, and download the app.
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Login
To authenticate your kid’s device, you need to log in using your own Facebook account as a parent. Enter your Facebook email and password and as soon as you do, the device will be authorized and you can proceed to set up the account.
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Set up the account
Enter your child’s first and last name, their birth date, then click Create Account. When you do, you will see a list of their other friends who are also using the app.
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Decide who they talk to
You can choose which other children you would like your child to connect with and add them. (When you add another child to chat with yours, Messenger will send their parents’ a notification and they will have to accept your add request before your child and theirs can start chatting.) If you cannot see anyone your child can chat with, you can invite your children’s friends’ parents to Messenger Kids to create an account.
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Add other adults to manage your child account
You can also add adults that you would allow your children to talk to such as their family members. If you need help guarding the account, you can add one of the adults to help manage the account with you.
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4-word codes
To make it easier for your children to find and connect with their friends, Messenger Kids uses 4-word codes that are generated for each child’s account. They can share this account with their friends so they can find them easily on messenger. If they add other kids or another kid adds them through a 4-word code, worry not, you still have to approve their add request before they can start chatting.
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Finalize
Allow Messenger Kids to send notifications, access photos and videos, and access the camera and microphone so they can video chat with others. Once you do, Accept the app’s terms and conditions and you’re done!
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Customize
To make your child’s experience better, you can add nicknames to the contacts so for example, you can add the nickname “grandpa” to their grandfather so they can easily find and connect with them.
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Let your kid enjoy
You are done! Give your child’s device back to them and introduce them to the app so they can start chatting with their friends and family.
How to Use Parental Controls After set-up?
To monitor your child’s activities, Facebook gives you parental control through a control panel. Using your own gadget, go to the Facebook app and find the Messenger Kids button that you will find when clicking on “More” on the bottom right corner of the app. From there you can add, block, report users who contact your little one. You can also delete their account if you decide to. Moreover, you can control which hours they can use the app through sleep mode. This method lets you set off times during which they cannot use the Messenger Kids app. When the sleep mode is turned on, your child will not be able to use the app, receive calls or messages notifications, or play with messenger camera.
Same issue as this post:
Installed messenger kids on my sons new tablet tonight. When I tried to log back in to his account the app won’t authorise the device with my Facebook details. Nothing has changed with my log in details. Can anyone help troubleshoot this issue? Thanks
Same issue. Did anyone figure this out?
I can not get messenger kids to authorize any device. It worked fine at first and then after logging out, it won’t let me back in. It just keeps rerouting me to the sign in page. I have Uninstalled, cleared storage, changed my Facebook password etc. I can’t get it to authorize on my phone or 2 different tablets. I tried to make a new one but it does the same thing.
Installed messenger kids on my sons new tablet tonight. When I tried to log back in to his account the app won’t authorise the device with my Facebook details. Nothing has changed with my log in details. Can anyone help troubleshoot this issue? Thanks
I can not get messenger kids to authorize any device. It worked fine at first and then after logging out, it won’t let me back in. It just keeps rerouting me to the sign in page. I have Uninstalled, cleared storage, changed my Facebook password etc. I can’t get it to authorize on my phone or 2 different tablets. I tried to make a new one but it does the same thing
I can not get messenger kids to authorize any device. It worked fine at first and then after logging out, it won’t let me back in. It just keeps rerouting me to the sign in page. I have Uninstalled, updated, cleared storage, etc. I can’t get it to authorize on my phone or tablet. I even deleted my daughter’s account and tried to make a new one but it does the same thing
I created a new Facebook account today so that I could then create a Kids Messenger account for my son. Have tried multiple times but constantly get “Account creation Failure”. Try again. Any ideas?
Unable to create an account, keep getting “Account Creation Failure”. Mona, your steps don’t explain what settings I need in my facebook account. Is there something I need to enable first? I cant ask facebook, they don’t have live chat for non-business users.
Trying to set up Messenger Kids on my daughter’s Pinwheel phone. I’m able to login with my email and facebook password, but it then asks for a pin verification number. It says the pin number was sent, but I’m not seeing anything in my email, Facebook messenger, or text messages. It won’t allow me to send a new pin or click the “help” button. Any ideas on where I might find that pin?
They forgot to mention!!
Then you log out of your Facebook on your child’s device so they can’t access it. !
Does anyone know why the kids messenger won’t allow me to create an account for my child?
i have been trying to create a login for both my son and daughter and every time I create Acc. it says “Account Creation Failure I have tried it on there bran new tablets and my phone
it was brillant help thank you but how do you download the app?
Everytime I try to create an account on my son’s tablet, I receive an error that says “Account Creation Failure. Something went wrong while we were creating your child account. Please try again.”
I’ve retried dozens of times. I’ve Uninstalled/reinstalled the messenger app, verified all the permissions and it still gives me the same error.
Why kids messeger is telling me
THE USER IS NOT ALLOWED TO LOG INTO THIS APP
PLEASE I NEED HELP
Does anyone know why the kids messenger won’t allow me to create an account for my child?
I have the same problem. Grandma set up an account and Dad and I would like to take over.
How do I change primary parent on my granddaughter account. Her mom had set up the account and one day I was helping My granddaughter with it and it put me as primary account and her mom as added parent. When granddaughter want to add new contact it tells her mom to send it to me. So I figured out how to delete her mom and add her Dad but it didn’t help. So please help me set up her Dad as the primary parent without deleting account and starting again. Thank you..