Facebook's plans to launch a kid-friendly Instagram have received lots of criticisms and disapproval from lawmakers, parents, and privacy advocates. While the move may seem noble on the outside, other social media platforms that tried it failed to deliver on their promises.
Instagram presently has 500 million daily users and 1 billion monthly users. These users come from all over the world to interact and share all kinds of information. The number of people on the platform increases every year, and we know that the figures will keep rising.
In 2017, Instagram had 800 million monthly users. This number kept growing, and now, the platform has billions of active users per month. People share a lot of adult content on the platform apart from the business contents from different brands. Children can see a lot of sexy stuff, substance abuse, and the use of foul language by the people they follow. Also, given the increasing rise of cyberbullying and attacks on the internet, it's not wrong to agitate for a kid-friendly Instagram.
Usually, the legal age to join Instagram is 13 years and above. But in most cases, underage children open and manage accounts because there's no way to stop them. This is because Instagram doesn't have a method of verifying the ages of its users. As a result, the kids are exposed to all sorts of harmful content.
This is the reason for the skepticism over the proposed kid-friendly Instagram.
Facebook CEO Promises a Kid-Friendly Instagram
During a virtual hearing on March 25th, 2021, Mark Zuckerberg revealed that the company would soon launch a kid-friendly Instagram.
According to Mark, such kid-friendly Instagram will be a platform for social interactions and learning among kids. He, however, stated that the company would put some parental control features in place to help parents manage their kid's activities on the platform.
Facebook had already launched the "Messenger Kids" app to boost social interaction among 13 years and below. Google previously released the "YouTube Kids" android and iOS app in 2015 and later launched the web version in 2019. Now, Facebook is expanding its reach by launching the kids-friendly platform targeting children from 13 years downwards. As of press time, the company is still in the planning stage of the project.
After the announcement, Mark had a hard time convincing many Congress members of the importance of launching such an app. Members of Congress like Congressman Gus Bilirakis and Congresswoman Kathy Castor expressed their skepticism over the supposed safe Instagram.
Facebook aims at using a skilled hand to ensure a safe and efficient product launch. The company recently hired Pavni Dijwanji as its vice president. Dijwanji was the overseer of the YouTube Kids project, and it's expected that he'll also facilitate the upcoming project.
But U.S lawmaker doesn't seem to be impressed over the announcement. The virtual meeting gave the room for more discussions between them and Mark Zuckerberg as they pressed him to elaborate on his grand plan to make Instagram safe for kids.
Other Kid-friendly Social Media Platforms are not as safe as Promised.
Google launched a YouTube Kids mobile app for kids below 13 years in 2015. The app was created for Android and iOS users until 2019 when the company launched the web-based version. In 2017, Messenger Kids joined the kids-friendly social media app trend. But there has been a lot of issues concerning the safety of kids while using these platforms.
Both Google and Facebook track their users online. They collect data, process, and utilize them for marketing purposes. With such a history, parents expected that the children would not be safe or protected from unauthorized tracking. So, the idea of kids-friendly apps became both a legal and privacy concern.
In 2019, the Federal Trade Commission fined Google $170 million in what was referred to as "the largest COPPA fine in history" The fine was due to unauthorized tracking of children's browsing history for targeted ads. Such acts were a direct violation of the "Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)" Same year, TikTok also bagged a fine of $5.7 million from COPPA for videos posted on its predecessor "Musicaly.ly.
Apart from the willful violations of COPPA by both Google and TikTok, a bug on Messenger Kids compromised children's privacy in 2019. The bug created a loophole that facilitated interactions between many kids and strangers. Facebook reacted very fast by informing parents of the bug and pulled down the platform's chats.
There was also an incident on YouTube Kids in 2017 when terrifying cartoon videos made their way into the platform. Unfortunately, millions of kids watched the content before Google took them down.
So, these issues have made it almost impossible to believe in kid's-friendly social media platforms. The social media companies fail woefully in maintaining the safety of the little children they promise to protect.
Will Instagram for Kids become a reality?
Even though there have been many controversies over the use of social media, the apps still facilitate social interactions and easy communications. But lots of terrifying events occur on many of these platforms. Many people lose their identity, privacy and are exposed to cyberbullying and attacks.
So, while the masses agree that children should communicate and learn from one another through social interactions, there's concern over the privacy and safety of these platforms. U.S lawmakers have expressed their disapproval over the announcement to create a kids-friendly Instagram. They gave the company time to answer their questions about protecting the young children on the social media app. Also, Congress wants Facebook to give a solid confirmation that children won't be a target for marketing ads while on the platform.
Apart from Congress, many groups, including child development professionals and privacy advocates, have expressed strong disapproval over the move. Children are exposed to many content on Instagram that could damage their mental health.
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Thanks for reading: How to Make Instagram Kid Friendly 2021, Sorry, my English is bad:)