The other day it was revealed that Netflix was testing out a way that appeared to encourage kids to binge watch shows. This came in the form of “Patches” (or badges, if you’d prefer) that kids could collect when watching shows which in a way acts as a reward/achievement of sorts. Unsurprisingly this raised some eyebrows.
The good news for parents who might be concerned about their kids spending more time watching TV than they should, it looks like Netflix has decided not to go ahead with the Patches rewards program after all. This was confirmed in a statement that Netflix had released to Engadget.
According to Netflix, “We’ve concluded the test for patches and have decided not to move forward with the feature for kids. We test lots of things at Netflix in order to learn what works well — and what doesn’t work well — for our members.” Given that the feature was in testing, it wasn’t particularly widespread so it’s not as if users will be missing out on a new feature.
That being said, Netflix isn’t alone in facing criticism at encouraging kids to spend more time in front of the screen. Recently Facebook launched its Messenger Kids app which children health advocates are asking to be shut down due to concern about such apps potentially undermining the child’s development.
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