Facebook, under criticism over internal data showing its Instagram app harms the mental health of teens, plans to uncover during a US Senate hearing on Thursday, according to prepared testimony from the company seen by Reuters. had a positive effect.
Antigone Davis, Global Head of Security FacebookWill detail the company’s previously announced efforts to better protect children and teens online, including adding default users under the age of 16 to private accounts, according to the testimony. “Our research has shown that many struggling teens say that instagram Helps them deal with many difficult issues that are all too common to be a teenager,” Davis’s written testimony says.
Facebook has come under fire for the past week after the Wall Street Journal reported that internal documents showed the social media company was aware that Instagram harmed the mental health of young users. Prior to the hearing, Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn said in a statement that “Facebook is aware that its services are actively harming their young users” and cited Facebook’s in-house analysts who “reported teen use of Instagram”. performed a series of deep dives, which revealed, ‘Aspects of Instagram excite each other to create a perfect storm.'”
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal called the hearing “the online safety of children” after the Wall Street Journal reported. Internal Facebook research shows that of teen girls who said they’ve felt sadness recently, 57 percent said Instagram made things better, Davis’ prepared commentary shows.
According to testimony, 51 percent of teenage girls who felt lonely said Instagram had a positive effect. In a separate hearing Tuesday, a Facebook whistleblower will testify about the company and how it handles the safety of children online at Blumenthal and Blackburn’s Senate hearings. The senators did not provide any information about the whistleblower.
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