The big thing that happened to Facebook last week was its outage, including that of Instagram and WhatsApp. But happening around the same time was whistleblower Frances Haugen testifying before US Congress about internal research that shows Instagram being bad for young people. Over the weekend, the company said that it will be adding features that tells teens to take a break from the app, as well as “nudge” them away from harmful content.
The announcement was made by Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs of Facebook. And it was done on CNN’s State of the Union show. The features are pretty self explanatory. The first one gets teens to take a break if they’re spending too long on Instagram, and the other will push them away if they’re engaged in a particular kind of content for too long.
All that being said, Clegg didn’t say when these features will actually make it to Instagram. He also points to a blog post which addresses the “nudge” point.
Facebook has been working on addressing the negative effects that Instagram has on children. The company rolled out the ability to hide likes and view counts on mobile. But the pressure to do more is definitely mounting, especially on latest developments with the whistleblower.
