UPDATED 22:29 EST / DECEMBER 07 2021

POLICY

Ahead of Adam Mosseri’s date with Congress, Instagram announces new protections for kids

One day before Instagram Chief Executive Adam Mosseri is scheduled to be grilled in front of U.S. senators, the company has announced changes to the app aimed at placating some of its critics.

Mosseri is meeting with Congress after a slew of negative news hit Meta Platforms Inc.-owned Instagram. A series of leaks this year suggested Meta, then Facebook Inc., knew that Instagram was having a negative impact on the mental health of the young, but did nothing about it.

It was announced in November that Mosseri would sit in the hot seat and answer to the allegations, his first time being questioned in that environment. He will face senators who have called Instagram “toxic,” although these changes to the app today may help Mosseri’s defense.

“We’ll be taking a stricter approach to what we recommend to teens on the app, we’ll stop people from tagging or mentioning teens that don’t follow them, we’ll be nudging teens towards different topics if they’ve been dwelling on one topic for a long time and we’re launching the Take a Break feature,” Mosseri said in a blog post today.

He added that the Take a Break option will be available only in the U.S., the U.K., Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Another major change is that young folks come January next year will be able to bulk delete their posts as well as their comments, which could prove to be a relief for some kids, or at least their parents.

The company also said that starting sometime early next year, it will give more tools to parents and guardians of teens, including an “educational hub” for parents. They will then be able to limit what their kids do on the app and see exactly how much time they’ve spent using Instagram.

Some of the main criticisms of Instagram are its addictive propensities and the fact that some kids post images they shouldn’t be posting. Another criticism is that an app that creates envy, jealously and insecurity is inherently bad. That’s something that can’t easily be changed unless Instagram becomes something it is not. Still, Mosseri doesn’t see things that way.

“Every day I see the positive impact that Instagram has for young people everywhere,” he said in the post today. “I’m proud that our platform is a place where teens can spend time with the people they care about, explore their interests, and explore who they are.”

Photo: Alexander Shatov/Unsplash

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