On the 27th of September Facebook announced it would pause the development of their Instagram Kids application, after nearly 100 worldwide experts and advocates urged CEO Mark Zuckerburg to discard their plans, claiming the platform will exploit kids’ overall well-being (Collins, 2021).
The version being designed – or rather was being designed – is supposed to be for children between the age of 10 and 12 and seems to be intended as a solution to the problem of children lying about their age in order to create regular Instagram accounts, which are currently limited to people over the age of 13 (Hurt, 2021). According to a report from Thorn – a nonprofit organization – forty percent of the children they surveyed were already using Instagram. Perhaps, these numbers won’t shock you. However, what I think is shocking is that almost a third of these children under 13 report that they’ve encountered potentially harmful experiences (Canales, 2021).
Personally, I don’t see (m)any advantages to a kids version of the application. In my opinion, children will think the adult version is cooler – or they just want to stay connected to older friends and family as well – and will continue to lie about their age. If nothing will be done about that being as simple as filling out another birth year (back in the days I did the same when all of my older friends were starting to use Facebook, and you probably did as well), nothing will change. Besides this, and far more important, how will Facebook regulate the (ages of) people that are on the kids app, when apparently they aren’t even able to manage this for the regular app. What will stop people with bad intentions from registering an account and pretending to be twelve years old?
I think there is more to say for more actively educating and informing children and their parents about the dangers social media entails. After all, most tech moguls seem to limit screen times of their children to a minimum, and that won’t be for nothing (Rutgard, 2018).
Reference list
Canales, K. (2021). 40% of kids under 13 already use Instagram and some are experiencing abuse and sexual solicitation, a report finds, as the tech giant considers building an Instagram app for kids. [online] Business Insider. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/kids-under-13-use-facebook-instagram-2021-5?international=true&r=US&IR=T [Accessed 6 Oct. 2021].
Collins, T. (2021). Cancel Instagram for kids: It “preys” on children’s fear of missing out, advocates say to Zuckerberg. [online] USA TODAY. Available at: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/04/15/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-advocates-warning-no-instagram-kids/7221426002/ [Accessed 6 Oct. 2021].
Hurt, A. (2021). Please, Please Like Me! Social Media Poses Unique Danger to Kids, Experts Say. [online] Discover Magazine. Available at: https://www.discovermagazine.com/technology/please-please-like-me-social-media-poses-unique-danger-to-kids-experts-say [Accessed 6 Oct. 2021].
Rutgard, O. (2018). The tech moguls who invented social media have banned their children from it. [online] Independent.ie. Available at: https://www.independent.ie/life/family/parenting/the-tech-moguls-who-invented-social-media-have-banned-their-children-from-it-37494367.html.
Very intriguing article, Laura.
On my side, I have always been an advocate of freedom of internet use through anonymity. Whether it is for age restriction reasons, geographical zone limitations, or any filter that is applied beforehand. Although I do not encourage people to lie about their information and condone parental restrictions on underaged children, I understand why the internet is unregulated in that sense. To me, that is the purest beauty of the internet and most essential component, anonymity.
Without becoming too political, I was quite taken aback by the restrictions put forward by the Chinese government that limits weekly computer gaming to ‘just three hours weekly of online gaming time — an hour between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday most weeks’ for children. I believe this should be up to the parents to decide and has no place in the political landscape.
All this being said, I am appalled at the idea of an Instagram Kids version. I had personally never heard of it; however, I can clearly see how it can easily become a nest for pedophilic actions to take place. The internet is tough enough already and has no real ‘safe space’, but people could rely on anonymity to protect themselves. However, in the case of an Instagram Kids version, the children that would take part in this app would even more easily fall prey to people with bad intentions.
Even if Facebook believes that this will reduce the frequency that children are exposed to harmful content, I can easily understand why you believe the exact opposite and I agree. The only solution to this being a successful implementation would there to be an extremely hard-working censorship team responsible for protecting the young users of the app. Surveillance up to a satisfying degree seems impossible when facing huge online communities who will target these children.
I also wish that they do not resume the development of the app. Please do not hesitate to comment on my thoughts!
Hi Thomas, thanks so much for your interesting comment! I am definitely going to read up on the restrictions of the Chinese government, cannot believe I missed that. I entirely agree on the point you make regarding the freedom of internet use. The hard part is that there will always be people with evil intents and without any constraints they will just continue their practices.
I honestly think this will be a neverending and difficult – but nevertheless incredibly interesting discussion – with different perspectives which may all be (partly) right.