Over 1,80,000 activists have joined forces and signed a petition against Instagram for Kids calling it the “greediest & most tone-deaf and wrongheaded idea”. According to The Hill and USA Today, the signatories are parents of children, activists and child-right advocates that have criticized Instagram’s parent company Facebook’s plan to introduce a platform for children below the age of 13.
Background
In March, 2021, BuzzFeed news reported that the top-level executives at Facebook owned Instagram have a plan to introduce a ‘kid-friendly’ version of Instagram which can be used by children below the age of 13. Vishal Shah, Instagram’s VP of Products wrote to the company’s employees saying-
“I’m excited to announce that going forward, we have identified youth work as a priority for Instagram and have added it to our H1 priority list.”
The VP further wrote-
“We will be building a new youth pillar within the Community Product Group to focus on two things: (a) accelerating our integrity and privacy work to ensure the safest possible experience for teens and (b) building a version of Instagram that allows people under the age of 13 to safely use Instagram for the first time.”
Details
After the reports of Instagram coming up with a version of the platform for kids below 12 surfaced, law-makers, child advocate groups and parents have all condemned photo-sharing platform’s plan to do so.
3 major petitions have been launched by Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood (CCFC), SumOfUs & Juggernaut Project have come down hard on Facebook’s plan to release a platform for children below 13 raising concerns on the consequence that will change children’s self-image, using their data, and enhancing their addictive nature through social media platforms at such a young age.
The CCFC Executive Director claimed that Facebook’s new plan uses “children as pawns in its war with TikTok for market share”. The CCFC Executive Director also said that-
“Instagram for young children is among the greediest, most tone-deaf and wrong-headed ideas ever to emerge from Silicon Valley.”
Earlier, after the development of an Instagram for Kids platform broke, several bipartisan lawmakers came together with the same message: scrapping of the Instagram for Kids before it starts.
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‘Strongly urge Facebook to abandon its plans’: US Democrats issues statement
Democrat lawmakers from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Florida released a statement that called Facebook to stop its Instagram for children app’s development before it starts.
“Facebook has a clear record of failing to protect children on its platforms,” the lawmakers said in the statement on Tuesday. “When it comes to putting people before profits, Facebook has forfeited the benefit of the doubt, and we strongly urge Facebook to abandon its plans to launch a version of Instagram for kids,”
-the statement said.
Facebook is creating need instead of responding to one: 44 democrats write letter
The democrats are part of number of other critics that have in the past been critical of Facebook’s actions and called the platform to not release such an app. The critics cited Facebook’s own tainted record on children’s well-being. Facebook had received similar criticism in May when 44 US attorneys wrote to the social media giant saying that the company is “not responding to a need, but instead creating one”.
Amid increasing sharp allegations and concerns, Facebook’s spokesperson tried putting end to the allegations by claiming that the platform intends to give the parents “visibility & control” over their kids’ actions.
“Platform will be developed with experts, legislators & privacy advocates”: Facebook statement
“As every parent knows, kids are already online. We want to improve this situation by delivering experiences that give parents visibility and control over what their kids are doing,” the spokesperson said in a statement. The platform will be developed in consultation with experts in child development, child safety and mental health, and privacy advocates, as well as work with legislators and regulators,”
-said a Facebook spokesperson.
Facebook shuts down Messenger Kids
It should be noted that several tech giants have received flak by the masses and the lawmakers for catering to a large number of children through their platforms that were full of loopholes and issues. In 2017, Facebook had launched an extension of its Messenger app called ‘Messenger Kids’. The company later shut down the extension citing ‘technical flaw’ as a reason which let kids take part in group chats with strangers without the approval of their parents or guardians.
YouTube runs into problems with YouTube Kids
Similarly, Google owned video sharing platform YouTube also ran into similar problems back in 2015 when it came up with YouTube Kids. Over the course of its run, the company had to make intervening actions where it had to take down several inappropriate videos that were accessed and watched by children.
Although there is no confirmation as to when the Instagram for Kids platform will be released and just how the social media platform will moderate the content, its getting clearer by the day that from lawmakers, to parents, no one is happy with the decision of Facebook to serve children who are below the age of 13.
