Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has been in hot water recently, first because of the historic decline in its shares of a flat 25% after the company shared its annual report for fiscal year 2021 and then because of European Union (EU) regulations that got in the way of the company. operations and applications in the data centers across the region.
Now religious groups have called on Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive officer, to end the company’s plan to launch an Instagram version for children, in a letter sent Tuesday by advocacy group Fairplay and their Children’s Screen. Time Action Network has been sent.
Since last September, Instagram has halted its plans to introduce a children’s version of the popular photo-sharing platform after resistance to the project grew. The letter, which was signed by more than 70 religious leaders, read:
After much meditation and prayer, we argue that social media platforms that target immature brains, employ unethical data mining, and are inspired by profit motives are not a tool for the greater well-being of children.
In December Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, received massive criticism of children’s online safety from a Senate panel, leading to an open investigation into the company by a coalition of state attorneys, for promoting the platform to young children, despite the fact that that they were aware of the potential damage.
In addition, the company was under intense scrutiny after a whistleblower, Frances Haugen, leaked internal documents leaking the company’s approach to underage users. While the tech giant disputed that the leaked documents were being used to mislead the company’s initiative, it didn’t really convince the masses given the potential impact of their plan on the mental health, body image and safety of the platform’s young users. †
While Instagram, like other social media sites, has rules against children under 13 joining the platform, it doesn’t stop users under this age from signing up.
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