“Instagram for Kids” is a Threat to Children and the World’s Future

Facebook recently announced it is developing “Instagram for Kids”, a version of Instagram that targets children under 13. This stunning cradle-to-grave social media immersion, similar to Facebook’s unconscionable “Messenger Kids” app, is an insidious threat to the privacy, mental health, critical thinking and safety of children everywhere.

As the founder of MeWe, a full-featured social network with millions of members, I can tell you first-hand that social media is no place for young children. That’s why MeWe requires members to be 16 years or older.

Over the last decade, studies have shown that mental distress among children and adolescents has increased significantly alongside their widespread use of smartphones and social media. Research shows a link between social media use and “increase in mental distress, self-injurious behavior and suicidality among youth.” In one study by an online-monitoring company tracking the online activity of 5.4 million children, Instagram was frequently flagged for “suicidal ideation, depression and body image concerns.” Studies have also found that frequently looking at selfies leads to “decreased self-esteem” and “decreased life satisfaction,” and that the amount of time spent on social media viewing photos is linked to higher levels of body-image dissatisfaction among girls.

Even worse, Facebook has been shown to directly exploit and profit off of mentally distressed youth. A report by The Australian revealed Facebook promised advertisers the ability to track teens’ emotions in real-time so that FB advertisers can target teens when they’re feeling most insecure.

While our brothers, sisters, kids, grandkids, nieces, and nephews are too young to use Facebook or Instagram today (users must be 13), they’re apparently not too young to be spied on, targeted, manipulated, hooked on and psychologically distressed by Facebook.

“Instagram for Kids” targets the youngest, most innocent and malleable audience imaginable: children aged 6–12. And let’s tell it straight — makes them addicts to social media in a blatant feeder ploy designed to onboard them directly into Instagram and Facebook when they turn 13. Even worse, it is expected to mimic how “Messenger Kids” (Facebook’s version of FB Messenger for children under 13) collects data such as children’s full names, their texts, audio, photos and videos, as well as whom the child interacts with, and the features they use and how long they use them — and who with, their location, etc.

Facebook recently announced yet another hack of its servers, this time of 550 million members and their data. What happens when this deeply personalized data on kids gets hacked and becomes available on the Dark Web and elsewhere for any nefarious buyer?

What is Facebook anyhow? Facebook is a data company masquerading as a social network. Facebook profits by tracking everything its users do — both on its site and off — and then sharing/selling access to its users’ personal data to advertisers, marketers, and politicians.

Facebook then targets its users and manipulates their newsfeeds, minds, purchase decisions and votes. A former Facebook executive admitted that Facebook even uses manipulative algorithms that amplify extreme and inflammatory content. Why? Because that creates higher engagement and more ad revenue. Facebook’s business model is detrimental to users of all ages — but it is especially insidious to young children who are the most susceptible to manipulation.

In total, 3.14 billion people already use Facebook-owned products including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and FB Messenger. That’s nearly half the human population. This begs the question: why does Facebook feel the need to target young children as well? Does Facebook really need to have total domination of the entire human population and their data, beliefs, et al., throughout their entire lifespans? For what purpose?

Fortunately, people are starting to push back against Facebook’s latest ploy. On May 18, a group of Congressmembers issued a statement joining 44 attorneys general and a coalition of child safety advocates urging Facebook to cease development of “Instagram for Kids” due to “mental health and privacy concerns”.

Our children’s free expression, critical thinking, privacy, psychological well being, and destinies are at stake. As the world begins to re-open after lockdown, young kids should be playing outdoors, learning, and having real interactions with other kids and the world. They should not be inculcated, brainwashed, mentally distressed and becoming addicted to social media. The implications for the future direction of humanity are deeply concerning.

To Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, and the Facebook Team: please do the right thing and cancel “Instagram for Kids”. To parents everywhere: if “Instagram for Kids” does come out, then please keep your children far away from it (and keep them off “Messenger Kids” too)!

Mark Weinstein is one of the original inventors of social networking, a renowned privacy expert, with a 2020 TED Talk on “The Rise of Surveillance Capitalism; and is listed as one of the Top 8 Minds in online privacy. He is the Founder of MeWe, the first social network with a Privacy Bill of Rights.