Facebook is Hitting the Brakes on Instagram for Kids (cnn.com) 38
Instagram is pressing pause on plans to develop a version of its service for kids under 13 after facing pressure from lawmakers to back down on the effort and new questions about the impact the photo-sharing service has on teen girls. From a report: "While we stand by the need to develop this experience, we've decided to pause this project," Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, wrote in a blog post published Monday. "This will give us time to work with parents, experts, policymakers and regulators, to listen to their concerns, and to demonstrate the value and importance of this project for younger teens online today." The move comes just days before the US Senate was set to hold a hearing entitled "Protecting Kids Online: Facebook, Instagram, and Mental Health Harms" to discuss the pressure today's youth face on social media. That hearing comes after a Wall Street Journal investigation around what Facebook knows about how Instagram affects teen users, including their mental health. In the blog post Monday, Mosseri acknowledged that the Journal's reporting "has raised a lot of questions for people."
Facebook: Our services cause depression in teens (Score:5, Insightful)
What NEED? (Score:1)
While we stand by the need to develop this experience....
This isn't a need. It's a want.
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe a candy-flavored instagram.
Facebook is digital cigarettes (Score:5, Insightful)
Confirmation that they were (are) even targeting children is gross. Facebook has done incalculable damage to the Internet and society as a whole.
Re:Facebook is digital cigarettes (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd mod you up if I had the points. I think maybe (a big maybe) social media started with reasonable intentions, but it's become an absolute nightmare -- for kids, as well as adults; and I think it's negative impact on society & culture FAR outweighs any benefits.
Re: Facebook is digital cigarettes (Score:2)
I remember when you needed proof of being a college student before you could even have a Facebook account. Yes, that is how Facebook started.
Of course, the masses used MySpace back then, FB saw dollar signs and then opened up to the general public. And they continue to see dollar signs which completely obscure their moral compass.
This is the second Eternal September nobody talks about, and it had made the internet a much worse place than when the AOLers were let loose on Usenet.
Re: Facebook is digital cigarettes (Score:2)
Definition of a Teen (Score:2)
Good. (Score:5, Interesting)
Interesting stuff for business sudies someday (Score:4, Interesting)
Facebook is a going to be such an interesting business case study once everyone can look at it from the perspective of time.
On the one hand Mark's business savvy and general ruthless let him take a shitty website out of college dormitory and turn it into one of the nationals largest corporations - on the flip side the companies reputation and his personal reputation (deserved? at least as compared to others) are clearly becoming obstacles to further growth even as the public remains on the platform. The complete lack of trust is attracting hostile regulatory attention. Its making it difficult to partner with others like the credit card companies and banks to move into other industries like electronic payments.
Facebook Inc 2011-202N years is going to some really interesting industrial history.
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Facebook Inc 2011-202N years is going to some really interesting industrial history.
There is non-zero chance that this period will be studied in the far-future by whatever civilization that will replace ours, after we destroy the West as the result of engagement-driving algorithms on social media set us to hate each other and ourselves.
This project is a guaranteed loser. (Score:4, Insightful)
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online gambling (Score:2)
Minors can't legally do many things online, such as gambling. Why not also draw the line at other harmful activities, like accessing most of the cesspit that is the Internet?
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I dunno if you can protect from the whole internet cesspit areas...
BUT if they did something as simple as requiring ALL social media to check IDs and only allow access to adults 18yrs and older, I think that would be a great start.
Re: online gambling (Score:2)
Now mail in your state/"Real" ID, Social Security card, birth certificat...oh sorry guys, our stock value just dropped to 0$. But if you act real fast, you can join us as we rip all of the copper wire out of our building.
Re: online gambling (Score:2)
Moral: What works for online gambling won't work at all with social media sites. And of course all IDs submitted to FB would be fake if done electronically.
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You act as if that would be a bad thing....?
Re: online gambling (Score:2)
Facebook could go down in flames and I would enjoy the shitshow.
The point I was making is that Facebook would die an instant death if they required government documents (identification) for someone to create an account, and another social media site would become huge overnight. Online gambling is different because they are legally required (IIRC) to ask for identification, and there is no shortage of slot jockeys willing to go through this process, and even risk identity theft to fuel their gambling
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Because in a free society you have to accept a little chaff with your wheat. No rules, securities, regulations, requirements etc. are perfect.
e.g. The U.S. judicial system is indented to make it difficult to convict the innocent (burden of proof is on the government), as such some guilty defendants are not convicted. This is why the system was set up they why it is, mostly. Yes, people have found ways to abuse this.
We need to put reasonable measures in place and get, at lease corporate, money out of poli
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In a free society we have different rules and standards of behavior for children. We don't let children smoke. We expect children under a certain height to be in a car seat. There's lots of practical reasons for controlling the decisions and responsibilities offered to an immature mind.
As for the problems faced within US's own borders due to their own politics of plutocracy, this doesn't really explain the behavior of social media corporations outside of the US. The world is sitting on their collective hand
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I agree. Perhaps I was not clear enough. The US could have more stringent and enforced regulations in place to protect the critical, mental development of children, if it were not for money in politics. We could have overall better personal privacy rights. Just be aware that nothing is perfect and we make adjustments as needed to correct negative, unintended consequences. Some things will get through in the pursuit of a free and open society and you reach a point where you can't separate out the remain
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Personally, I'm going to do my best to keep my kids off this crap until the move out of the house (which will likely be in their mid 30s).
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I'm arguing that no amount of Facebook is healthy. There is nothing you can do to improve a fundamentally flawed activity, at least not without eliminating the profitability. It may have to die like cartoons designed to sell children toys for for 30 minutes.
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Before Facebook, people would try to force you to watch a slideshow of their vacation photos. Now you can scroll past it in an instant. Don't tell me it's good for nothing.
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I'd just tell them my dog has Giardia and I can't attend.
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Not going to work. As long as we have put groups of children together and allowed them unstructured activity kids have been tormenting each other! They will even do this under fairly strict adult supervision. They will make codes to speak in, invent games to play where the "rules" ostracize someone in some plain to them but not facially apparent way unless you pretty carefully quiz the kids on how the game works. Kids are immature in terms of empathy but they are not dumb.
Literally unless the 'controls' am
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Kind of hard to enforce parental controls when Facebook doesn't officially allow anyone under 13. Once you have an account and lied about your age, it's going to be hard to put that under a parent account. Messenger Kids allows a sort of child account for Facebook Messenger but it's not really a Facebook account.
Re: online gambling (Score:2)
Remember when Darwin used to sort 'em out? Yeah, that ended sometime around 2000.
More weasel words! (Score:3)
While we stand by the need to develop this experience, we've decided to pause this project.
Translation: "We're doing this come hell or high water, but we're getting enough pushback that we're going to wait out the first part of the storm because it will ultimately cost us less and will dupe a few people into believing that we're being collaborative and that we actually give a fuck".
This will give us time to work with parents, experts, policymakers and regulators, to listen to their concerns
Translation: "This will give us time to propagandize the parents, buy off the experts and policymakers, and listen to jack shit".
demonstrate the value and importance of this project for younger teens online today
Translation: "We sure hope nobody figures out just how desperate we are to brainwash the next generation so they never question our motives and they always consider us to be a natural and necessary part of their existence".
Re: Finally! (Score:2)
At least the massive intellectual black hole that sits in the center of the internet will shrink a wee bit.
IG for Kidz (Score:2)
Great, just put up a big neon sign with a giant arrow pointing the way for the sicko predators.
If someone is so young that they need a "For Kidz" verson of Instagram, then they don't need Instagram, nor should they even be allowed to use the service.