Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 17 submissions in the queue.

Facebook Documents Show How Toxic Instagram is for Teens, Wall Street Journal Reports

posted by FatPhil on Saturday September 18 2021, @07:25AM   Printer-friendly
from the modern-internet-considered-harmful dept.

upstart writes:

Facebook documents show how toxic Instagram is for teens, Wall Street Journal reports:

The Journal report exacerbated at least one lawmaker's concerns over Facebook's exploration of a children's version of Instagram. Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., has made children's mental health concerns in connection with social media use a key priority and previously rebuked Facebook for considering such a product.

Following the Journal's report, Trahan called for Facebook to "immediately abandon plans for Instagram for Kids" and focus instead on protecting existing young users.

"Facebook's internal documents show that the company's failure to protect children on Instagram – especially young girls – is outright neglect, and it's been going on for years," Trahan said in a statement.

"Facebook has no business developing additional social media platforms explicitly designed for our children[* see below] when they can't be trusted to keep their current house in order."

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has also made children's mental health online a cornerstone of her platform. In a statement Tuesday, she said Facebook "refused to comply" with a request from Republicans on the committee in March asking for its internal research on its products' impact on kids' mental health. [...]

Read the full Wall Street Journal report. [Seems paywalled -- ed.]

[* Maybe the story's changed since submission, or there's some GeoIP trickery going on, but the story I now see is fairly different to the above, and contains this statement: "Facebook is also building a version of Instagram for kids under age 13." which explains the representatives concerns, above.]

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Facebook Documents Show How Toxic Instagram is for Teens, Wall Street Journal Reports | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 22 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday September 18 2021, @08:40AM (5 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 18 2021, @08:40AM (#1179142) Journal

    Facebook and everything it touches is toxic. So, what's new here?

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +3  
       Insightful=2, Touché=1, Total=3
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   5  

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 18 2021, @09:32AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 18 2021, @09:32AM (#1179154)
    What's new is that so many parents are so addicted to Facebook themselves that they won't even try to control their kids exposure. And kids are quick to point out the hypocrisy of parents who won't put their phones down long enough to prepare a proper meal telling them to get off the internet.

    We've got 40-year-olds who can't make anything more complicated than nuking some pizza pockets.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 18 2021, @06:13PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 18 2021, @06:13PM (#1179245)

      I think we are seeing evolution in action, my friend. The pizza-nukers are expanding to fill every niche in the couch.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 18 2021, @07:22PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 18 2021, @07:22PM (#1179261)

    Which came first: The Psychopath wanting to become a Billionaire from exploiting unsupervised Humans (of all ages), or the Humans needing constant supervision...

    Wouldn't it have been for the better if those chain-emails back in 1994 about Congress making the Internet needing a licence to use had actually been truthful...

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 18 2021, @11:50PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 18 2021, @11:50PM (#1179324)

    Facebook has decided to call all the other pots black.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 20 2021, @08:26AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 20 2021, @08:26AM (#1179619)

      facebook own instagram