Facebook pop-up warnings to prompt young users to take a break

FACEBOOK has launched “take a break” pop-up warnings on its apps in an attempt to counter concerns about children spending too long on social media.

Users of Facebook and Instagram will be able to create the alerts to limit their time on the apps, block push-notifications for periods of up to eight hours and view a record of the time they have spent on the apps each day.

The three new tools, announced yesterday and to be rolled out worldwide over coming weeks, come amid growing concern about the potential damage excessive use of social media is having on the mental and emotional health of children.

However, campaigners said the moves did not address online bullying or inappropriate content and failed to provide a default mode that would require people to opt out of time limits or block notifications.

LSE professor Sonia Livingstone, a board member of the UK council for child internet safety, said default settings would be a “great next step” – but she said regulation was still needed to make the firms more accountable and transparent about how they protected children from harms.

“We still need regulation,” she said. “Facebook might decide in a year’s time it is too expensive – and what is going to make Snapchat and the long tail of other companies do it? It’s great that Facebook innovates, but it’s insufficient across the industry.”

The Daily Telegraph has launched a campaign for a statutory duty of care on social media and gaming firms to protect children online. Ameet Ranadive, product director of wellbeing at Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, said: “Our long-term goal with all of these tools is to give people more insights and control into how they can manage their time and experience on Facebook and Instagram.”

The three tools are accessed on mobile devices but not desktops.