Parents fully control the contact list and children can’t connect with contacts of whom their parent do not approve. Parents also control the child’s account and contacts through a special panel that appears in their main Facebook app. The app is free to download and there are no ads or in-app purchases on it.

But before we get carried away, let us put this exciting new development in its wider context. Facebook is a data-mining and refining company. It makes almost all of its revenues from monetising the data trails of its users. The key to its continuing prosperity lies in making sure that the supply of that precious data continues to flow in ever-increasing volumes.

That can only be done in two ways: by increasing the number of users and/or by increasing the amount of time they spend engaging with the service – ie creating “monetisable” data.