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Facebook may have “put on hold” its plans to develop an Instagram for kids, amid criticism that the app can be harmful to teens, but don’t expect it to go away without a fight.
Instagram director Adam Mosseri defended his company’s efforts on Monday while announcing the move in a blog post. Building an Instagram Kids platform for ages 10 to 12 is always “the right thing to do,” Mosseri wrote.
The hiatus follows a recent Wall Street Journal investigation, which found that Instagram is harmful to many teens, especially teenage girls. According to the survey, Facebook’s own internal research showed that among teens who reported suicidal thoughts, 13% of UK users and 6% of US users attributed the problem to Instagram.
After the report was released, lawmakers called on Facebook to drop its Instagram Kids project. But Mosseri’s defense of the platform is perhaps not surprising: Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, 37, has a habit of letting his own young children use at least one of the media platforms. social aspects of his company.
In 2019, Zuckerberg told Fox News “The Daily Briefing” that he had allowed his two daughters – Maxima, 6 and August 4 – to use Portal, Facebook’s video chat product, since the age of 2. .
“I let my kids use it to communicate with my parents, so they can easily stay in touch with their grandparents, [and] their aunts who live across the country, ”Zuckerberg said.
Although Zuckerberg admitted that he generally didn’t want his kids to sit in front of a TV or computer for long periods of time, he said that using a chat platform like Portal could have beneficial effects. on the health of certain children. Zuckerberg did not respond to CNBC’s Make It request for comment at time of posting.
9 and 10-year-olds who spend a lot of time in front of screens are only “slightly” more likely to have impaired attention, interrupted sleep and lower grades than their peers, published study finds in the scientific journal PLOS ONE in September. 8.
Researchers found no link between screen time and high levels of depression and anxiety in children, and found that children who spent more time with screens had more close friends. .
However, studies on social media in particular are rather mixed. According to the Wall Street Journal survey, internal Facebook research has linked Instagram to adolescent eating disorders, body image issues and depression.
A study from the International Journal of Eating Disorders in March suggests that some of these same problems may show up even earlier, in children aged 9 and 10.
In 2016, a group of researchers looked at 70 studies on social media and children’s mental health, all published between 2005 and 2016. Their report, published in the Journal of Mental Health, found that some adolescent social media users were happier and more connected with others. people – while others have reported more signs of depression or anxiety.
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