Facebook is building a kids version of Instagram for children under 13

It will likely be similar to the Messenger Kids which was launched in 2017 for children aged between 6 to 12 years

Facebook is building a version of the photo-sharing tool Instagram for kids under age 13 where parents will have controls just like Facebook Messenger Kids.

According to Buzzfeed, the initiative was announced by Vishal Shah, Instagram's vice president of product, in a Facebook post for employees on Thursday, where Shah said that "youth work" has been identified as a priority for Instagram.

Shah added that a "new youth pillar within the Community Product Group" would focus on providing "safest possible experience for teens" and creating a new version of Instagram that allows children under the age 13 to safely use Instagram for the first time.

The work would be led by Pavni Diwanji, a vice president, and overseen by Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram.

Mosseri confirmed in a tweet on Friday that a version of Instagram for kids is in the works.

He said that many kids want to "join apps that help them keep up with their friends," and therefore they are exploring "a version of Instagram where parents have control, like we did w/ Messenger Kids".

"We'll share more down the road," he added.

Under Instagram's current policy, children under 13 are not allowed to use the platform.

The Instagram for Kids app is expected to be similar to the Messenger Kids, which was launched in 2017 for children aged between 6 and 12 years.

The platform currently provides a number of parental controls, including access to messages and contact list. However, many people criticise Facebook for launching such apps for children.

In 2018, a group of more than 95 advocates for children's health sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, urging him to discontinue Messenger Kids. The group said that excessive use of social media and digital devices been shown to negatively impact teens and children, and that it was very likely that the new app would "undermine children's healthy development."

Earlier this week, Instagram also introduced a new feature that will prevent adults from sending messages to users under the age of 18 who don't follow them.

According to a new study conducted by cloud storage company pCloud, Instagram is the most intrusive app when it comes to sharing users' personal data.

The study, which is based on Apple's iOS 14 privacy 'nutrition labels', found that Instagram was sharing with outsiders 79 per cent of users' personal data, including their search history, contact details, location and financial information.

"No wonder there's so much promoted content on your feed," the report noted. "With over 1 billion monthly active users it's worrying that Instagram is a hub for sharing such a high amount of its unknowing users' data."

Facebook was second in the list, with 57 per cent of personal data collected shared with third-parties.

LinkedIn and Uber Eats were judged to be the third most-invasive apps, both sharing 50 per cent of the collected data.