Advocates say kids’ Instagram product would ‘put young users at great risk’
An international coalition of children’s health advocates has called on Facebook to abandon its plans to build an Instagram product for kids, citing harm to teens from excessive use of social media.
The campaign comes after Buzzfeed broke the news in March that Facebook seeks to build an Instagram product for people under the age of 13. The company currently requires users to be 13 years or older to create an account.
In a letter coordinated by the youth advocacy non-profit the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, more than 20 groups and dozens of individual advocates and researchers say an Instagram for children would “put young users at great risk” and implore the chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg, to scrap the project. They cite a “growing body of research” demonstrating the negative effects social media has on young people.
“Instagram, in particular, exploits young people’s fear of missing out and desire for peer approval to encourage children and teens to constantly check their devices and share photos with their followers,” the letter says. “The
platform’s relentless focus on appearance, self-presentation, and branding presents challenges to adolescents’ privacy and wellbeing.”
The groups add that while Instagram has been proven to have negative effects on teens, the impact may be even more grave for those under 13.
“Young children are highly persuadable by algorithmic prediction of what they might click on next, and we are very concerned about how automated decision making would determine what children see and experience on a kids’ Instagram platform,” the letter said.
The letter comes as tech companies – including Facebook – are targeted with increased scrutiny over the public health impact of their products. After Buzzfeed reported the potential of an Instagram for kids, Congress members Edward Markey, Kathy Castor, Richard Blumenthal and Lori Trahan wrote to Zuckerberg asking for more information on the project – about which they said they had “serious concerns”.
“Facebook has an obligation to ensure that any new platforms or projects targeting children put those users’ welfare first, and we are skeptical that Facebook is prepared to fulfill this obligation,” they said.
In December, the Federal Trade Commissioners issued a joint statement in support of an investigation of social media’s impact on children. “It is alarming that we still know so little about companies that know so much about us,” the commissioners said.
Zuckerberg at a hearing relating to Facebook antitrust concerns this year shrugged off criticisms of the platform, saying “there is clearly a large number of people under the age of 13 who would want to use a service like Instagram” to “stay connected with friends”.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the letter.