Almost every attorney general in the United States on Monday came out against Facebook’s plans to launch an Instagram app for children, citing the technology giant’s history of failing to protect children’s welfare on its platforms.
The attorneys general from 44 states, including California, where Facebook and Instagram are based, sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asking him to abandon his plans for the new platform, saying that it would be detrimental to the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of children.
Facebook has been exploring creating a new Instagram platform for children for some time, according to news reports in March based on internal documents.
“Without a doubt, this is a dangerous idea that risks the safety of our children and puts them directly in harm’s way,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement Monday.
“There are too many concerns to let Facebook move forward with this ill-conceived idea, which is why we are calling on the company to abandon its launch of Instagram Kids,” she added.
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The letter to Facebook cited the rapidly worsening state of cyberbullying on Instagram, Facebook’s spotty track record of protecting children and their data on its platforms, and children’s inability to navigate the complex and dangerous world they encounter online.
“Not only is social media an influential tool that can be detrimental to children who are not of appropriate age, but this plan could place children directly in the paths of predators,” James said.
The letter cited research and reports that show that social media platforms and Instagram, in particular, have had a negative influence on children’s mental health, including causing suicidal thoughts and lower self-esteem.
The letter also said that Facebook and Instagram had reported 20 million child sexual abuse images in 2020.
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Facebook has “just started exploring a version of Instagram for kids,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. Furthermore, the social media giant has committed to not show ads “in any Instagram experience we develop for people under the age of 13.”
