Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri doesn’t want to officially commit to ending his plans for a version of the social media platform for children under 13 years old, CNBC reported Wednesday (Dec. 8).
Speaking before the Senate Commerce subcommittee, Mosseri said he wanted to make sure no kids between 10 and 12 years old could see the platform without explicit parental consent.
The idea behind the kids-focused product is to offer youths a way to use the platform, without the thorny pitfalls of explicit content and age verification.
However, Mosseri said the issue was bigger than just his company, and that the responsibility of keeping kids safe on the internet came with a need for “industry-wide solutions and standards.”
Mosseri’s testimony follows the incident when ex-Facebook employee Frances Haugen released internal data to journalists and politicians. That data included a presentation about teens reporting suicidal thoughts, with 13% of British users and 6% of Americans saying the cause was Instagram.
In response to all of that, Mosseri wasn’t sure of the accuracy. CNBC writes that he said the research was “mischaracterized” in the company’s own documents about the matter.
Before the hearing on Wednesday, Instagram rolled out a few updates for improving teen safety, including a prompt for teenage users to “Take a Break” after being on the app for a while, and an option for parents to both see and limit content on Instagram.
See also: Instagram Moves to Head Off Criticism, Debuting Teen Protections Prior to Senate Hearing
Mosseri said the idea behind the “Take a Break” idea was to “ask them to take a break from Instagram and suggest that they set reminders to take more breaks in the future.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn said the timing of all of this was suspicious, adding that the late-night release — “midnight in Silicon Valley” — made it seem like the company was looking to “drop news that you don’t want people to see.”
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