{"id":3426,"date":"2024-09-18T19:15:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T19:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mobiledave.me\/?p=3426"},"modified":"2024-09-25T00:16:53","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T00:16:53","slug":"instagrams-teen-accounts-arent-really-for-teens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mobiledave.me\/index.php\/2024\/09\/18\/instagrams-teen-accounts-arent-really-for-teens\/","title":{"rendered":"Instagram\u2019s Teen Accounts aren\u2019t really for teens"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jason Citron, CEO of Discord; Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap; Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok; Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X; and Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta are sworn in as they testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 31, 2024 in Washington, DC. | Alex Wong\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, announced Tuesday<\/a> that it would begin rolling out measures that restrict what kind of content young people can access, who they can talk to, and how much time they spend on special media. The new measures will begin with an Instagram rollout that began September 17 in the US<\/a>, but will eventually be implemented on Facebook and WhatsApp, too.<\/p>\n

The new policies include automatically making Instagram accounts of users 16 and under private, limiting who can contact teen accounts or tag them in posts, muting certain words associated with online bullying, and defaulting to the most restrictive content access, as well as encouraging young people to spend less time on the app.<\/p>\n

The new protocols come after years of discourse regarding the effect of social media use on young people, with pundits and politicians arguing that social media and smartphones are to blame for a decline in teenagers\u2019 well-being. <\/p>\n

Legislation and lawsuits have blamed social media for issues ranging from bullying and suicidal ideation to eating disorders, attention problems, and predatory behavior. Meta\u2019s new policies gesture toward those concerns<\/a>, and some may have positive effects, particularly those geared toward privacy. But they also address the rhetoric of<\/a> politicians rather than<\/a> teenagers\u2019 well-being and come even as some experts caution that there\u2019s no causal relationship between youth social media use and those poor outcomes. <\/p>\n

Meta is trying to address lots of criticism about its effect on teens<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Meta and other social media companies have been subject to intense scrutiny for their perceived ill effects on the mental health and well-being of young people. Cyberbullying, eating disorders<\/a>, anxiety, suicidal ideation, poor academic outcomes, sexual exploitation<\/a>, and addiction to social media and technology are all concerns that Meta\u2019s new Instagram protocols<\/a> were designed to address. <\/p>\n

In recent years, reporting \u2014 like the Wall Street Journal\u2019s 2021 series Facebook Files<\/a> \u2014 has explored how Meta\u2019s leadership knew that Instagram could be toxic for teen girls\u2019 body image, yet did not try to mitigate the risks to vulnerable users. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has also placed the blame for increasing rates of depression and anxiety on social media use; his office released a report last year<\/a> warning that social media use was a leading contributor to a decline in young people\u2019s mental well-being. <\/p>\n

The report says that up to 95 percent of American children ages 13 to 17 use social media, and nearly 40 percent of children ages 8 to 12 do, too. \u201cAt this time, we do not yet have enough evidence to determine if social media is sufficiently safe for children and adolescents,\u201d the report\u2019s introduction states, and cites excessive use, harmful content, bullying, and exploitation as the main areas for concern. <\/p>\n

Murthy also called for a surgeon general\u2019s warning label on social media \u2014 similar to the one on cigarette packs and alcohol bottles warning about those products\u2019 risk to health \u2014 in a New York Times op-ed<\/a> in June. The op-ed also called for federal legislation to protect children using social media.<\/p>\n

Such legislation is already making its way through Congress \u2014 the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)<\/a>. KOSA passed the Senate in July and is headed to the House for markup Wednesday; it\u2019s not clear whether any version of the bill will end up passing both chambers, but President Joe Biden has indicated<\/a> that he would sign such a bill if it did. <\/p>\n

The version of KOSA that passed earlier this summer would require companies to allow children or teen accounts to turn off targeted algorithmic features and limit features that reward or enable sustained use of the platform or game in question. It would also require companies to limit who could communicate with minors, as Meta\u2019s new policies do; \u201cprevent other users […] from viewing the minor\u2019s personal data\u201d; and mitigate and prevent harms to teen mental health.<\/p>\n

The Senate-approved version of KOSA goes further than Meta\u2019s new teen account policies do, particularly when it comes to young people\u2019s data privacy, and it\u2019s unclear what effect the Instagram Teen accounts will have, if any, on legislation surrounding young people\u2019s social media use. <\/p>\n

Who are the new protocols for, and will they make teens\u2019 lives better?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The language in Meta\u2019s press release is geared toward parents\u2019 concerns about their children\u2019s social media use, rather than young people\u2019s online privacy, mental health, or well-being.<\/p>\n

The reality is that Meta\u2019s teen accounts, as well as the KOSA legislation<\/a>, can only do so much to address cultural and political fears about what social media does to children\u2019s well-being because we simply don\u2019t know that much about it. The available data<\/a> does not show<\/a> that social media use has more than a negligible outcome on teens\u2019 mental health. <\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of things that are proposed to fix social media are not really questions of scientific rigor, they\u2019re not really questions about health or anxiety or depression,\u201d Andrew Przybylski, a professor of human behavior and technology at Oxford University, told Vox. \u201cThey\u2019re basically matters of taste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stetson University psychology professor Christopher Ferguson, who studies the psychological effect of media on young people, said that in his view the uproar over social media\u2019s effect on kids\u2019 well-being has all the makings of  \u201ca moral panic,\u201d echoing earlier generations\u2019 concerns that radio, television, the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, and other new media would ruin the minds and morals of children.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear exactly what metrics Meta plans to use to decide whether the new rules are helping children and parents; when asked about those metrics, Meta spokesperson Liza Crenshaw only told Vox that the company would \u201citerate to ensure Teen Accounts work\u201d for Instagram users. Crenshaw didn\u2019t respond to follow-up questions by publication time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese all look like good-faith efforts,\u201d Przybylski said. \u201cBut we don\u2019t know if it\u2019s going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jason Citron, CEO of Discord; Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap; Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok; Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X; and Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta are sworn in as they testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 31, 2024 in Washington, DC. | Alex Wong\/Getty Images Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, announced Tuesday that it would begin rolling out measures that restrict what kind of content young people can access, who they can talk to, and how much time they spend on special media. The new measures will begin with an Instagram rollout that began September 17 in the US, but will eventually be implemented on Facebook and WhatsApp, too. The new policies include automatically making Instagram accounts of users 16 and under private, limiting who can contact teen accounts or tag them in posts, muting certain words associated with online bullying, and defaulting to the most restrictive content access, as well as encouraging young people to spend less time on the app. The new protocols come after years of discourse regarding the effect of social media use on young people, with pundits and politicians arguing that social media and smartphones are to blame for a decline in teenagers\u2019 well-being.  Legislation and lawsuits have blamed social media for issues ranging from bullying and suicidal ideation to eating disorders, attention problems, and predatory behavior. Meta\u2019s new policies gesture toward those concerns, and some may have positive effects, particularly those geared toward privacy. But they also address the rhetoric of politicians rather than teenagers\u2019 well-being and come even as some experts caution that there\u2019s no causal relationship between youth social media use and those poor outcomes.  Meta is trying to address lots of criticism about its effect on teens Meta and other social media companies have been subject to intense scrutiny for their perceived ill effects on the mental health and well-being of young people. Cyberbullying, eating disorders, anxiety, suicidal ideation, poor academic outcomes, sexual exploitation, and addiction to social media and technology are all concerns that Meta\u2019s new Instagram protocols were designed to address.  In recent years, reporting \u2014 like the Wall Street Journal\u2019s 2021 series Facebook Files \u2014 has explored how Meta\u2019s leadership knew that Instagram could be toxic for teen girls\u2019 body image, yet did not try to mitigate the risks to vulnerable users. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has also placed the blame for increasing rates of depression and anxiety on social media use; his office released a report last year warning that social media use was a leading contributor to a decline in young people\u2019s mental well-being.  The report says that up to 95 percent of American children ages 13 to 17 use social media, and nearly 40 percent of children ages 8 to 12 do, too. \u201cAt this time, we do not yet have enough evidence to determine if social media is sufficiently safe for children and adolescents,\u201d the report\u2019s introduction states, and cites excessive use, harmful content, bullying, and exploitation as the main areas for concern.  Murthy also called for a surgeon general\u2019s warning label on social media \u2014 similar to the one on cigarette packs and alcohol bottles warning about those products\u2019 risk to health \u2014 in a New York Times op-ed in June. The op-ed also called for federal legislation to protect children using social media. Such legislation is already making its way through Congress \u2014 the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). KOSA passed the Senate in July and is headed to the House for markup Wednesday; it\u2019s not clear whether any version of the bill will end up passing both chambers, but President Joe Biden has indicated that he would sign such a bill if it did.  The version of KOSA that passed earlier this summer would require companies to allow children or teen accounts to turn off targeted algorithmic features and limit features that reward or enable sustained use of the platform or game in question. It would also require companies to limit who could communicate with minors, as Meta\u2019s new policies do; \u201cprevent other users […] from viewing the minor\u2019s personal data\u201d; and mitigate and prevent harms to teen mental health. The Senate-approved version of KOSA goes further than Meta\u2019s new teen account policies do, particularly when it comes to young people\u2019s data privacy, and it\u2019s unclear what effect the Instagram Teen accounts will have, if any, on legislation surrounding young people\u2019s social media use.  Who are the new protocols for, and will they make teens\u2019 lives better? The language in Meta\u2019s press release is geared toward parents\u2019 concerns about their children\u2019s social media use, rather than young people\u2019s online privacy, mental health, or well-being. The reality is that Meta\u2019s teen accounts, as well as the KOSA legislation, can only do so much to address cultural and political fears about what social media does to children\u2019s well-being because we simply don\u2019t know that much about it. The available data does not show that social media use has more than a negligible outcome on teens\u2019 mental health.  \u201cA lot of things that are proposed to fix social media are not really questions of scientific rigor, they\u2019re not really questions about health or anxiety or depression,\u201d Andrew Przybylski, a professor of human behavior and technology at Oxford University, told Vox. \u201cThey\u2019re basically matters of taste.\u201d Stetson University psychology professor Christopher Ferguson, who studies the psychological effect of media on young people, said that in his view the uproar over social media\u2019s effect on kids\u2019 well-being has all the makings of  \u201ca moral panic,\u201d echoing earlier generations\u2019 concerns that radio, television, the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, and other new media would ruin the minds and morals of children. It\u2019s unclear exactly what metrics Meta plans to use to decide whether the new rules are helping children and parents; when asked about those metrics, Meta spokesperson Liza Crenshaw only told Vox that the company would \u201citerate to ensure Teen Accounts work\u201d for Instagram users. Crenshaw didn\u2019t respond to follow-up questions by publication time. \u201cThese all look like good-faith efforts,\u201d Przybylski said. \u201cBut we don\u2019t know if it\u2019s going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mobiledave.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3426"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mobiledave.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mobiledave.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mobiledave.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mobiledave.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3426"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/mobiledave.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3429,"href":"http:\/\/mobiledave.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3426\/revisions\/3429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mobiledave.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mobiledave.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mobiledave.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mobiledave.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}