The Wall Street Journal said in a report earlier this month that Facebook plans to release an internal research report on Instagram to Congress and the public. The report expresses serious concerns about the impact of photo-sharing applications on the mental health of teenagers. Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs at Facebook, said at an online event hosted by The Atlantic on Monday that the social network will share these research reports in the “next days.”
If you read this and compare it with some out-of-context content about Instagram being harmful to all teenagers… I don’t think any sane person would say that research fully supports this. Say,” Clegg said. Of course, people should judge themselves.
Clegg’s comments were reported earlier by Engadget because the social network is facing pressure from lawmakers. Earlier, the New York Times reported on September 14 that Facebook researchers have conducted research in the past three years and found that Instagram is “harmful” to a large proportion of young users, especially girls.
Facebook fought back against the report. The company said in a blog post on Sunday that the purpose and results of its research on Instagram had been mischaracterized. The company’s global security chief is scheduled to speak at a Senate committee hearing on Thursday, which will focus on Facebook’s research on the impact of its apps on young audiences, its actions in response to threats to these users, and protection Policy considerations for children going online.
However, Facebook said on Monday that it will suspend the development of Instagram Kids, a special service it has created for children, with the purpose of spending time focusing on developing parental monitoring tools. In a blog post, the head of Instagram Adam Mosseri stated that he still believes that building Instagram Kids is the right thing, but he added that the company hopes to work with parents, experts, and policymakers to prove the service’s effectiveness.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
