tech

Facebook puts Instagram for kids on hold after pushback

7 Comments
By MICHELLE CHAPMAN

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7 Comments
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I don't see much good (for the kids) coming from introducing them to Instagram at a younger age.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

A reason why the company is pushing Instagram Kids is because usage of the regular app is declining on a per capita basis. It was sustained in part due to global growth but most markets have been reached now.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I don't see much good for adults to use Instagram either

2 ( +2 / -0 )

This article is being excessively kind to the platform.

According to the WSJ, leaked documents describe a culture that was little short of being virtually toxic for its negative impacts.

“Why do we care about tweens?” read one document from 2020 obtained by the Journal. “They are a valuable but untapped audience.”

Another document for 2019 said: “Are kids are [sic] using Messenger Kids during playdates, and if so, how are they using the app and talking about the app?” “Is there a way to leverage playdates to drive word of hand/growth among kids?”

Earlier findings revealed by the Journal showed that internally, Facebook researchers knew Instagram had certain negative effects on teens, such as exacerbating anxiety, depression and body-image issues, while publicly, executives downplayed such concerns.

https://nypost.com/2021/09/29/facebook-saw-children-as-untapped-audience-documents-show/

1 ( +1 / -0 )

These apps are dangerous, they provide unlimited and unfettered access to our children by people who we have no idea what they are saying and where they're from, or even what motivates them. They encourage insular withdrawn behaviour and provide a barrier between youths natural career and their ability to provide wise counsel and moderation in belief structures and behaviour. It's not just the so called social media platforms that are in the risks category but popular gaming sights as well with their ability to form association's and groups with chat facilities that have very limited moderation with, in most cases a blocking function or a report language and behaviour button somewhere in it's content. This might be okay with more mature audiences but with a young person who has little life experience it's not really an effective safeguard as the user may not even realise that they are being groomed or abused by someone who has something else on their mind or infact if their experience is being taylored by a cabal to whatever end's that they have in mind.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

With a bit of support, kids generally cope better with new tech than adults. The adult response to tech - fear it, ban it, binge on it, abuse it, use it unwisely or initiate a moral panic over its use - is often poor.

To rewrite the line in the piece, the use of absolutely anything by some teenage girls can lead to mental health issues and anxiety. The cosmetics and fashion industries, take a bow.

That's what hormonal shifts at puberty, cultural pressures, gender inequality, youth and human nature do to you. It's tough growing up.

It's a missed opportunity to get kids off adult social media into a safer and heavily regulated environment, whilst developing it as a positive, educational tool. Then, when they move up to the adult versions, they might have learned to behave better online towards each other. Netiquette needs to be taught and learned, like other life skills.

Parental supervision is as important for juvenile social media as it is for a healthy diet and good mental health, so at least they are heading in the right direction.

It seems almost anything can be banned today because someone, somewhere used it unwisely and was upset as a result. You can deny the majority something, because a minority had problems with it. I'm sure the Chinese government are already using that to ban heaps of things. In the West, left-wing politicians use it for similar reasons.

One of the things that really messes up kids in America is the toxic and divisive nature of politics today, especially the politicisation of the educational environment - lesson content, mask use, guns. If politicians really cared about kids, they would tone down their rhetoric and behave in a civilised manner. That they don't, suggests that their interventions are merely attempts to manipulate society according to their politics, rather than a genuine attempt to improve the life of young people.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

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