On Monday, social media behemoth Instagram announced that they are pausing developments on an app geared towards children, dubbed as “Instagram Kids.” This move comes shortly after the Wall Street Journal reported that internal documents at Facebook, which owns Instagram, show the platform as detrimental to the mental health of teenagers.
“We started this project to address an important problem seen across our industry: kids are getting phones younger and younger, misrepresenting their age, and downloading apps that are meant for those 13 or older,” the news release by Instagram Head Adam Mosseri reads.
“We firmly believe that it’s better for parents to have the option to give their children access to a version of Instagram that is designed for them – where parents can supervise and control their experience – than relying on an app’s ability to verify the age of kids who are too young to have an ID,” Mosseri continued. “While we stand by the need to develop this experience, we’ve decided to pause this project. This will give us time to work with parents, experts, policymakers and regulators, to listen to their concerns, and to demonstrate the value and importance of this project for younger teens online today.”
While the news release did not specify exactly why the platform will not move forward with “Instagram Kids” at this time, Mosseri rebutted the claims made in the Wall Street Journal articles that Instagram is harmful for teenagers.
“Critics of ‘Instagram Kids’ will see this as an acknowledgement 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 stated. He notes that both YouTube and TikTok have versions targeted for children. He goes on to say that “Instagram Kids” was never meant for children, rather, for children ages 10-12. It would require parental permission to join, will not include ads, and allow parents to supervise the time children spend on the app.
“Recent reporting from the WSJ on our research into teen’s experiences on Instagram has raised a lot of questions for people. To be clear, I don’t agree with how the Journal has reported on our research. My colleague Pratiti goes into this more here.
We do research like this so we can make Instagram better. That means our insights often shed light on problems, but they inspire new ideas and changes to Instagram. Examples include our industry leading anti-bullying work such as Restrict, Hidden Words, and Limits, and our recent changes to make Instagram accounts private by default for those under 16.
Research also informs our work on issues like negative body image. We announced last week that we’re exploring two new ideas: encouraging people to look at other topics if they’re dwelling on content that might contribute to negative social comparison, and a feature tentatively called ‘Take a Break,’ where people could put their account on pause and take a moment to consider whether the time they’re spending is meaningful.”
Last week, as we reported, House Oversight Democrat Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) wrote a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for failing to protect the welfare of Facebook and Instagram users. The letter touched on the reports made by the WSJ that point out Instagram’s effect on teens mental health, specifically, body image and suicidal ideation. Facebook has since published an article refuting the claims made by WSJ.
“I am deeply concerned by reports that Facebook has intentionally buried these internal studies while failing to fix the problem,” Krishnamoorthi’s letter reads. “At a time when Facebook needs to do more to protect Instagram’s teen users, it is simply irresponsible to expand the platform to our most vulnerable – children under the age of 13.”
“I have three children and their safety is the most important thing in my life. I hear the concerns with this project, and we’re announcing these steps today so we can get it right,” Mosseri said in today’s news release.