Instagram’s New Feature to Protect Teens From Harmful Content

Facebook plans to introduce a new feature to protect teenagers from harmful content. According to the company manager, the update aims to preserve the mental health of teenagers in connection with reports from American legislation on Facebook subsidiaries.

Instagram Is Ready to Cooperate

The company is ready to provide US lawmakers relevant information for analysis of algorithms used for recommended content. Facebook’s vice president Nick Clegg stated that algorithms should be reviewed according to the rules and prosecuted if violations were found.

Former Facebook employee Frances Haugen criticized the app a few days before the Vice President’s speech. Haugen stated that the company aims to keep the user scrolling, and this may harm teenagers. Clegg, in turn, stated that the update could bring about significant changes, notably to discourage teenagers from watching repetitive content. The company will also introduce a new feature called ‘take a break’ which will offer a break from using the app.

Facebook Activities Claimed to Be Unreliable

Facebook also received allegations from United States senators. Due to the leak of internal statistics, the lawyers do not trust the company’s plans to protect teens. Facebook knew that Instagram was hurting teenagers and did nothing.

One of the senators, Amy Klobuchar, spoke in favor of increasing control over the actions of Facebook and similar companies. She said that the situation needed to be addressed. The US needs a new privacy policy that allows people to agree or refuse access to sharing of their personal information. 

Clegg also said that Facebook has recently suspended its plans to develop Instagram Kids, which targets children below the age of adolescence, and is introducing new additional adult controls to monitor teenagers. What do you think about this situation? Feel free to leave your comments below and share the article if you liked it!