Instagram, ahead of U.S. Senate hearing, tightens teen protection measures
Instagram said on Tuesday it will be
stricter about the types of content it recommends to teens in the photo-sharing
app and will nudge them toward different areas if they dwell on one topic for a
long time.
In a blog post, the social media
service announced a slew of changes for teen users. Instagram head Adam Mosseri
is due to testify in a Congressional hearing on Wednesday about protecting kids
online.
Instagram and its parent company
Meta Platforms Inc, formerly Facebook, have been under scrutiny over ways their
services could cause issues around the mental health, body image and online
safety of younger users.
In the post, Mosseri also said
Instagram was switching off the ability for people to tag or mention teens who
do not follow them on the app. He said that starting January, teen Instagram
users would be able to bulk delete their content and previous likes and
comments.
He said Instagram was exploring
controls to limit potentially harmful or sensitive material suggested to teens
through its search function, hashtags, short-form video Reels and its
'Suggested Accounts' feature, as well as on its curated 'Explore' page.
The blog also said that on Tuesday,
Instagram was launching its 'Take a Break' feature in the United States, United
Kingdom, Canada and Australia, which reminds people to take a brief pause from
the app after using it for a certain amount of time.
It said in March next year Instagram
would launch its first tools for parents and guardians to see how much time
their teens spend on the app and set time limits.
An Instagram spokeswoman said it
would continue its pause on plans for a version of Instagram for kids.
Instagram suspended plans for the project in September, amid growing opposition
to the project.
The move followed a Wall Street
Journal report that said internal documents, leaked by former Facebook employee
Frances Haugen, showed the company knew Instagram could have harmful mental
health effects on teenage girls, for example on their views of body image.
Facebook has said the leaked documents have been used to paint a false picture
of the company's work.
State attorneys general and
lawmakers had also raised concerns about the kids-focused app.
Last month, a bipartisan coalition of U.S. state attorneys general said it had opened a probe into Facebook for promoting Instagram to children despite potential harms.