Background

UPDATE: In light of the damning internal research published by The Wall Street Journal, Facebook has announced it is "pausing" work on Instagram for kids. That's not enough: this pause must be made permanent! 

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According to an internal memo published by BuzzFeed, Facebook plans to build a version of Instagram for children under 13. Instagram is not safe or appropriate for young children, and the research supports that.

In the elementary and middle school years, children experience incredible growth in their social competencies, abstract thinking, and sense of self. Finding outlets for self-expression and connection with their peers become especially important. An Instagram for kids would exploit these rapid developmental changes. 

A growing body of research demonstrates that excessive use of digital devices and social media is harmful to adolescents. Instagram, in particular, exploits young people’s fear of missing out and desire for peer approval to encourage children and teens to constantly check their devices and share photos with their followers. The platform’s relentless focus on appearance, self-presentation, and branding presents challenges to adolescents’ privacy and wellbeing. 

Millions of children between the ages of 10 and 12 have already lied about their age to create Instagram accounts and are highly unlikely to migrate to a “babyish” version of the platform. The true audience for a kids’ version of Instagram will be much younger children who do not currently have accounts on the platform.

Younger children are even less developmentally equipped to deal with these challenges, as they are learning to navigate social interactions, friendships, and their inner sense of strengths and challenges during this crucial window of development.

Moreover, young children are highly persuadable by algorithmic prediction of what they might click on next, and we are very concerned about how automated decision making would determine what children see and experience on a kids’ Instagram platform.

Sign the petition and join us in asking Mark Zuckerberg to put the wellbeing of children ahead of Facebook’s market share.