Facebook Is Playing With Fire - and Kids' Lives - Spotlite CEO Says!
“To succeed in this space you need to build with your heart, not your head.”
The social media giant, Facebook, is not doing enough to protect children on its platform despite its plans to launch a version of Instagram for kids under the age of 13. That is the claim being made by Silje Larsen, the Chief Executive Officer of Spotlite, a kids social media and content company that caters to tweens and teens. According to Larsen, Facebook does not provide the necessary protections that would make it a safe environment for children to use, nor does it police itself in a way that ensures children who are too young for the platform cannot gain access to it. And yet, she claims, the digital tools for so-doing are already available.
Larsen, who runs Kudos&Co. Inc, the company which owns Spotlite, said that Facebook does not have the necessary in-house knowledge base to cater to the additional needs of minors on social media and to keep kids safe online. Spotlite, on the other hand, has built up almost seven years of experience as a responsibly run social media and content-platform for youngsters.
“We have worked closely with kids, parents, the police, the FBI, Save The Children, and many other organizations to create a safe level of moderation that will protect kids,” Larsen said. Speaking as she announced the re-launch of the children's social content platform globally under its new branding in the spring of 2021, Larsen went on to add that she thought Facebook was, “literally playing with fire.”
Spotlite, which was previously known in US AppStores as Kudos, thinks that proper moderation is the key that will make any social media platform more friendly to children. According to Larsen, to build a truly effective moderation system, kids' social media and content platforms need to invest more than money. “You need time, as in years, to come up with the right sort of data that will help you to be effective in safeguarding children,” she said. “You can’t buy this sort of knowledge with cash alone” Larsen went on to say.
“As a parent and having served as the Head of Moderation at Spotlite from 2014 to 2020, I am concerned by the intentions of popular social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.”
Larsen pointed out that the lack of moderation on the two platforms was concerning insofar as it meant that young people and children could be exposed to inappropriate content and contact without any action being taken. Larsen urged the responsible parties at Facebook and Instagram – which is owned by Facebook - to reach out to her. “Kids' lives should be protected, not played with,” she said. “Our insights around psychology and user-patterns are groundbreaking.”
According to Spotlite's CEO, it took six years and around 2 million installations to build a proper moderation system that successfully protects children. “We were the first in the world to come up with a real, self-learning moderation system based on artificial intelligence,” Larsen said.
For the monthly cost of a Starbucks Coffee, we can take care of your kids.” However, this may mean that a sea change will be required in the way that the likes of Facebook operate at the moment. “To succeed in this space you need to build with your heart, not your head,” Larsen said.
At the moment, it appears that Facebook is doing the latter and that is playing with fire. They should get their own house in order before opening up their platforms for kids, according to the Spotlite CEO.