Tatsat Chronicle Magazine

Facebook to highlight Instagram’s ‘positive impact’ on kids in US Senate hearing

October 13, 2021
social media

Since the Wall Street Journal reported — citing internal papers — that Facebook was aware that Instagram was harming the mental health of teenage users, the social media firm has been under criticism

Facebook has developed a statement to explain how Instagram protects children’s online safety. Facebook has been chastised as a result of internal data that was obtained and disclosed by the Wall Street Journal. The materials demonstrated how Instagram has a harmful impact on teenagers’ mental health. It demonstrated that Facebook was aware of the harm caused by Instagram. According to the hearing, Antigone Davis, Facebook’s global head of safety, will go over the company’s previously stated steps to better protect children and teens online, such as defaulting users under the age of 16 to private profiles when they join Instagram.

According to Davis’s written evidence, “our research found that many struggling kids claim that Instagram helps them deal with many of the hard difficulties that are so typical to being a teen.” “Facebook knows that its services are actively harming their young users,” Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn said in a statement, citing Facebook’s in-house analysts who “performed a series of deep dives into teen use of Instagram that revealed, ‘aspects of Instagram exacerbate each other to create a perfect storm.” Following the Wall Street Journal’s article, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal dubbed the session “Protecting Kids Online.”

According to Davis’ prepared statements, internal Facebook data shows that 57 percent of young girls who indicated they had lately felt unhappy stated Instagram helped them feel better. According to the testimony, Instagram had a good impact on 51% of young girls who were lonely. Whistleblowers from Facebook will testify about the corporation and how it addresses kid safety online at a Senate hearing on Tuesday, which will be attended by Senators Blumental and Marsha Blackburn. The senator didn’t say anything about the whistleblower.