August 27, 2019

Senator Edward Markey

255 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Markey:

Thank you for your letter. We appreciate the opportunity to provide information regarding the
technical error you inquired about that affected Messenger Kids, as well as the steps we have
taken to fix the error and notify users. This response addresses the questions posed in your letter,
but should you need additional information, we welcome further discussion.

To provide background, Messenger Kids is a messaging and video app that is designed for
children under 13 to connect with friends and family approved by that child’s parent or guardian.
We designed Messenger Kids with the guidance and input of thousands of parents and experts,
and with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) in mind.

We learned of the technical error referenced in your letter on June 12, 2019. Because of the error,
a Messenger Kids user could, under certain specific and limited conditions, create a group chat
with their parentally approved contacts even if those contacts were not approved to connect with
each other. Although each individual in the group chat was a parentally approved contact of the
individual who created the group chat, the group should not have been created because not all
participants were approved as to each other. Because the Messenger Kids inbox only shows chats
from approved contacts, any user not approved to chat with all members of a group chat would
not have seen the chat in their inbox. They would only have been able to access the group chat
through a push notification.

Upon discovering the technical error, we immediately investigated how it had occurred; on June
13, 2019, we were able to fix it. Additionally, after identifying the affected chat threads, we
disabled these chats, removing the ability for any further messages to be sent. We notified the
parent or guardian accounts of the affected Messenger Kids users on July 15, 2019. Following
parental notification, we deleted the chat threads from the accounts of affected Messenger Kids
users as part of our effort to remove any affected connection. As explained above, the group
chats were only accessible through push notifications on the child’s device because the
Messenger Kids inbox only shows chats from approved contacts.

Messenger Kids takes children’s privacy and security seriously, and we are committed to
ensuring any technical errors are investigated and addressed quickly. Based on our review, we
have determined that the technical error you have inquired above arose in October 2018. The fix
we implemented is designed to prevent the issue from happening again. As always, we are
working to improve our products, particularly when we discover that they are not functioning as
intended.

Finally, we are in regular contact with the FTC on many issues and products, including
Messenger Kids. Consistent with our practice, we seek to be cooperative and responsive to their
inquiries. As for the July 24, 2019 proposed settlement with the FTC, it remains pending federal

Address: 575 7th Street NW

Suite 700
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court approval and, as a result, is not yet in effect. We believe, however, that Messenger Kids
complies with COPPA, and we are committed to continually improving it and our safeguards to
ensure we not only comply with COPPA but we meet and exceed the high standards of parents
and families.

Thank you again for your inquiry, and please do not hesitate to be in touch with any further
questions.

Sincerely

Kevin Martin
Vice President, U.S. Public Policy

CC: Senator Richard Blumenthal

Address: 575 7th Street NW

Suite 700
Washington, DC
20004