Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

Tuesday 5 december 2017 TECHNOLOGY
A24

Facebook launches parent-controlled Messenger app for kids

By BARBARA ORTUTAY huge,” she said. strategist at the Center on world use do not always train has left the station.”
AP Technology Writer Messenger Kids, mean- Media and Child Health match up. Facebook’s live Federal law prohibits in-
NEW YORK (AP) — Face- while, “is a result of see- at Boston Children’s Hospi- video streaming feature, ternet companies from
book is coming for your ing what kids like,” which tal and Harvard University, for example, has been collecting personal infor-
kids. mation on kids under 13
The social media giant is without their parents’ per-
launching a messaging mission and imposes re-
app for children to chat strictions on advertising to
with their parents and with them.
friends approved by their This is why Facebook and
parents. many other social media
The free app is aimed at companies prohibit young-
kids under 13, who can’t er kids from joining. Even so,
yet have their own ac- Balkam said millions of kids
counts under Facebook’s under 13 are already on
rules, though they often do. Facebook, with or without
Messenger Kids comes their parents’ approval.
with a slew of controls for He said Facebook is trying
parents. The service won’t to deal with the situation
let children add their own pragmatically by steering
friends or delete messag- young Facebook users to a
es — only parents can do service designed for them.
that. Kids don’t get a sepa- Facebook said Messenger
rate Facebook or Messen- Kids won’t show ads or col-
ger account; rather, it’s an lect data for marketing.
extension of a parent’s ac- Facebook also said it won’t
count. This photo provided by Facebook demonstrates Facebook’s new Messenger app for kids on an automatically move users
A KIDS-FOCUSED EXPERI- iPad. to the regular Messenger or
ENCE Associated Press Facebook when they get
While children do use mes- old enough, though the
saging and social media is images, emoji and the called Messenger Kids a used for plenty of innocu- company might give them
apps designed for teenag- like. Face filters and play- “useful tool” that “makes ous and useful things, but the option to move con-
ers and adults, those servic- ful masks can be distract- parents the gatekeepers.” also to stream crimes and tacts to Messenger down
es aren’t built for them, said ing for adults, Lavallee said, But she said that while Face- suicides. the line.
Kristelle Lavallee, a chil- but for kids who are just book made the app “with HOOKED ON FACEBOOK Messenger Kids is launching
dren’s psychology expert learning how to form rela- the best of intentions,” it’s Is Messenger Kids simply a Monday in the U.S. on Ap-
who advised Facebook on tionships and stay in touch not yet known how people way for Facebook to rope ple devices — the iPhone,
designing the service. with parents digitally, they will actually use it. in the young ones? iPad and iPod Touch. Ver-
“The risk of exposure to are ways to express them- As with other tools Face- Stephen Balkam, CEO of sions for Android and Ama-
things they were not devel- selves. book has released in the the nonprofit Family Online zon’s tablets are coming
opmentally prepared for is Lavallee, who is content past, intentions and real- Safety Institute, said “that later.q
NASA nails test on Voyager spacecraft, 13 billion miles away

By MARCIA DUNN engine test on a spacecraft to fire backup thrusters on since Voyager 1 flew past region beyond our solar
AP Aerospace Writer 13 billion miles away. Voyager 1, our most distant Saturn. system. Voyager 2 is close
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Last week, ground spacecraft. The thrusters To NASA’s delight, the four on its heels — nearly 11
(AP) — NASA has nailed an controllers sent commands had been idle for 37 years, dormant thrusters came billion miles from Earth. The
alive. It took more than thruster test worked so well
19 hours — the one-way that NASA expects to try it
travel time for signals — on Voyager 2. That won’t
for controllers at the Jet happen anytime soon,
Propulsion Laboratory in though, because Voyager
Pasadena, California, to 2’s original thrusters are still
get the good news. working fine.
Engineers wanted to see The Voyager flight team
if these alternate thrusters dug up old records
could point Voyager 1’s and studied the original
antenna toward Earth, a software before tackling
job normally handled by the test. As each milestone
a different set that’s now in the test was achieved,
degrading. The thrusters the excitement level grew,
will take over pointing said propulsion engineer
operations next month. Todd Barber.
The switch could extend “The mood was one of
Voyager 1’s life by two to relief, joy and incredulity
three years. after witnessing these well-
Launched in 1977, Voyager rested thrusters pick up the
1 is the only spacecraft baton as if no time had
traveling through passed at all,” he said in a
interstellar space, the statement.q