Facebook announced this week that it is “pausing” work on a planned version of Instagram for children under the age of 13, amid scrutiny of the social media platform’s effects on young people.
But according to Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Lori Trahan, “a ‘pause’ is insufficient.”
“Facebook has completely forfeited the benefit of the doubt when it comes to protecting young people online and it must completely abandon this project,” the two Massachusetts Democrats said in a statement Monday, along with Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Rep. Kathy Castor of Florida.
The group first called on Facebook to abandon plans for so-called “Instagram for Kids” in a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg earlier this month, after the Wall Street Journal reported that the social media giant, which owns Instagram, had conducted internal research showing that the photo-sharing app was harmful to a sizable percentage of young users, particularly teenage girls.
And even before that, they were skeptical. After the plans were first reported in April, the four Democrats sent a letter to Zuckerberg pressing him on the protections the app would include, noting that Facebook’s previously released Messenger Kids app had a design flaw allowing children to circumvent restrictions.
“Time and time again, Facebook has demonstrated the failures of self-regulation, and we know that Congress must step in,” they said in their statement Monday, adding that they will reintroduce a bill to ban certain online advertising and design features that encourage young users to spend more time on apps.
Trahan, who has two young daughters, added on Twitter that Facebook should “release its full internal research, and focus on making its current services safer for users, especially young girls.”
Facebook, however, is standing by its plans, at least for now.
In a blog post Monday, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, wrote that while critics of “Instagram Kids” will see the pause “as an acknowledgment that the project is a bad idea,” that’s “not the case.”
“The reality is that kids are already online, and we believe that developing age-appropriate experiences designed specifically for them is far better for parents than where we are today,” Mosseri wrote.
Technically, children under the age of 13 are prohibited from using Facebook and Instagram, though many simply lie about their age.
Mosseri said the planned version of Instagram for kids would be aimed at “tweens (aged 10-12).” It would also require parental permission to join, would not have ads, and would include “age-appropriate content and features.”
Still, Instagram Kids is just part of Facebook’s efforts to attract younger users.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the company plans to create more products for preteens and has commissioned strategy papers on the long-term business opportunities presented by the “valuable but untapped audience.”
“With the ubiquity of tablets and phones, kids are getting on the internet as young as six years old. We can’t ignore this and we have a responsibility to figure it out,” said one confidential document in 2018, according to the Journal. “Imagine a Facebook experience designed for youth.”
