This article positions as something invented between the USA and the USSR... But, just looking into wikiepdia:
"One such solution was a method proposed in 1809 by the French pastry chef Nicolas François Appert, which involved long-cooking meat or vegetables (approximately 1-2 hours) and pasteurizing the finished product in a brine solution. Appert received a personal award for this invention from Napoleon."
The problem is that organizations providing infrastructure (such as message exchange, money exchange, physical entities exchange) are allowed by law to manipulate the stream, heavily advertise, provide credit etc all kind of scum. Depriving children from writing a message to parents and friends is nonsense. Exposing them to these for-profit organizations is questionable. But that is also questionable with the grown ups.