Instagram announces new features to protect teen mental health

Instagram announced on Sunday that further steps will be taken to ensure the mental health of its youngest users is protected. It was Nick Clegg, communications manager at Facebook, who detailed them on CNN.

These announcements follow publicized revelations from whistleblower Frances Haugen. In September, this former Facebook engineer revealed in the Wall Street Journal the addictive and dangerous nature of Instagram for teenagers, especially girls, reports BFM Business. A harmfulness of which the company would be perfectly aware, according to internal documents.

Une option « take a break »

In response, the Facebook group, through Nick Clegg, announced several features to reduce the toxicity and addiction of Instagram. The manager presented a tool aimed at better framing the experience of young users.

“When our system sees that a young person is watching similar content over and over again that could be harmful to their mental health, we will direct them to other content,” said Nick Clegg. The social network will take care of inviting adolescents to vary the content they consult to limit the obsessive side of certain themes.

A second device, “take a break”, should also be introduced soon. Its purpose is to regularly encourage teens to quit the application. This measure had already been mentioned by Facebook at the end of September. In the same press release, the company also announced the discontinuation of the Instagram project dedicated to under 13s.