Ahead of a congressional hearing, Adam Mosseri outlines Instagram parental controls coming in March, including monitoring time spent and bulk deleting posts

& could have—been implemented long ago. https://www.npr.org/... @instagram : It's OK to take a break. ❤️ We want your time on Instagram to be positive and intentional. Starting today, you can now add reminders to take a break while you're scrolling on Instagram. Learn

New York Times 2021-12-08 David McCabe

Context & Ripple Effects

Mosseri’s commitments arrive after he agreed to appear before a Senate Commerce subcommittee on Instagram’s effects on teenagers, and after Instagram had already paused work on Instagram Kids amid criticism from parents, experts and policymakers. The scheduled controls turn the hearing from a discussion of harms into a test of Instagram’s concrete safeguards.

The announcement also follows Instagram’s launch of take-a-break reminders, extending its safety response from user-set prompts to tools intended for parental oversight.

First-order effects

Instagram will add parental controls in March that let families monitor time spent and delete posts in bulk, while Mosseri can point to a defined product response during Senate scrutiny of teen mental-health effects.

Second-order effects

The hearing gives Senate Commerce members a specific set of Instagram safeguards to assess, increasing pressure on the company to show that parental controls address concerns that led it to halt Instagram Kids.

Third-order effects

If parental supervision becomes the recurring response to youth-safety scrutiny, youth-oriented social products will increasingly compete on built-in access controls rather than treating them as optional settings.

The trend: Teen-safety pressure is pushing social platforms toward product-level parental oversight and away from expanding youth experiences without visible safeguards.

Discussion

@stevekovach Steve Kovach on x
Instagram is going to do a bunch of child safety stuff, a response to the Facebook Papers and announced a day before CEO Mosseri testifies in senate. https://www.cnbc.com/...
@alexvoica Alexandru Voica on x
Instagram has been working for a long time to keep young people safe on the app; as part of that work, today we're announcing some new tools and features to keep young people even safer on Instagram: https://about.instagram.com/ ...
@swodinsky Shoshana Wodinsky on x
okay but why announce this at midnight PT (3am ET) tho,,,,,,,,,, https://twitter.com/...
@andymstone Andy Stone on x
This includes launching the “Take a Break” feature, which we announced last month was in testing. https://twitter.com/...
@senblumenthal Richard Blumenthal on x
Instagram's baby steps fall short of protecting kids. A PR gambit within hours of its CEO testimony is no substitute for real action.
@senblumenthal Richard Blumenthal on x
Instagram only takes action to address its harms to kids the day before its CEO is set to testify before my subcommittee. Make no mistake: these simple time management & parental oversight tools should have—& could have—been implemented long ago. https://www.npr.org/...
@instagram @instagram on x
It's OK to take a break. ❤️ We want your time on Instagram to be positive and intentional. Starting today, you can now add reminders to take a break while you're scrolling on Instagram. Learn More: https://about.instagram.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@mosseri Adam Mosseri on x
New Safety and Well-being Features 🙏🏼 Excited to announce these new tools to help our community feel even more supported while on Instagram: - Take a Break - Parental Controls - Your Activity Check out our new blog post to learn more 👉🏼https://about.instagr am.com/ ... https://tw…
@slpng_giants @slpng_giants on x
Certainly hope that @SenBlumenthal @MarshaBlackburn @amyklobuchar @brianschatz and the rest of the Consumer Protection, Product Safety & Data Security Subcommittee ask @Instagram chief @mosseri about this tomorrow. Nothing's shocking about @meta at this point, but this is awful. …
@senblumenthal Richard Blumenthal on x
We've learned too much to just take Big Tech's word at face value: we're going to hold them to it. I look forward to my Consumer Protection subcommittee's hearing tomorrow to learn what concrete, substantive legislation Instagram will support to protect kids online.
@rmac18 @rmac18 on x
Today Instagram announced more parental controls, and published a blog post with expert commentary that supports their new features. It didn't disclose, however, that two of the four experts are paid by the company: https://about.instagram.com/ ...
@rmac18 @rmac18 on x
@_phillippa I think tech companies can and should work with academics and leaders in their fields to improve their products. And those experts should be compensated for their work. But those relationships should be disclosed, upfront, and transparent.
@amyklobuchar Amy Klobuchar on x
Funny timing. Make no mistake, at tomorrow's Senate hearing I'll be questioning the head of Instagram about how we can better protect kid's safety online. https://www.npr.org/...
@rmac18 @rmac18 on x
@annecollier She has been vocal in defending the company. Here's a recent opinion piece she wrote, and it isn't until the very bottom that she discloses that she's paid by some tech companies, though not the specifics. (An IG/Meta spokesperson confirmed she receives payment after…
@donie Donie O'Sullivan on x
oy. “When a teen account followed a drug dealer on Instagram, the platform started recommending other accounts selling drugs, highlighting how the company's algorithms try to keep young people engaged regardless of dangerous content.” https://www.techtransparencyproject.org / ...
@steveschmidtses Steve Schmidt on x
Giving them anorexia, depression and anxiety gets old after a while. https://twitter.com/...
@congressmanraja Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi on x
These “safety features” are not enough. There is not enough transparency surrounding Instagram and the way it interacts with teenagers and kids. We must have accountability. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@rmac18 @rmac18 on x
The first person is @annecollier, who runs the Net Safety Collaborative. Here she is giving a quote about the Instagram feature. But there is no disclosure that she's paid by the company. https://twitter.com/...
@rmac18 @rmac18 on x
The second person is @_phillippa, who gives the below quote. She notes that she's working with the company, though doesn't disclose any financial relationship. (An IG/Meta spokesperson confirmed she is a paid consultant after I asked.) https://twitter.com/...
@mango_press_ @mango_press_ on x
China did this over online mobile gaming and these clowns lost their minds.... https://twitter.com/...
@hypervisible Surveillance Killjoy on x
Putting a shiny coat of paint on the toxic waste factory before inspection. https://www.cnbc.com/...
@dmccabe David McCabe on x
More than a decade after it was founded, Instagram will get parental controls. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@slpng_giants @slpng_giants on x
Facebook (⁦@Meta) is just⁩ the most cynical company in the world. ⁦@mosseri⁩ announcing teen safety updates one day before appearing in front of Congress to testify about @instagram harming the mental well-being of teen girls is something else https://www.cnbc.com/...
@karaswisher Kara Swisher on x
Decent moves from ⁦@mosseri⁩ ahead of testimony though I would imagine that it's like pushing back the ocean with a spoon at this point: Instagram announces teen safety updates https://www.cnbc.com/...
@mattnavarra Matt Navarra on x
Instagram: We've launched new tools to keep younger users safe! Also Instagram: https://www.nbcnews.com/...
@metanewsroom @metanewsroom on x
We want your time on our apps to be intentional, so today we're launching Take a Break on @instagram so you can keep track of how you're spending your time and set reminders to take breaks while scrolling. https://about.fb.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@jason_kint Jason Kint on x
and @MarshaBlackburn drops a truth bomb in kicker: “Meta is attempting to shift attention from their mistakes...This is a hollow ‘product announcement’ in the dead of night that will do little to substantively make their products safer for kids and teens.” https://www.wsj.com/...
@jeremarketer Jeremy Goldman on x
Big and long awaited news from Instagram. This comes of course as Adam Mosseri (head of Instagram) will be appearing before a Senate committee tomorrow. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@roncharles Ron Charles on x
Mission accomplished! “The Take a Break feature alerts users when they've been on Instagram for a predetermined amount of time. Teens will have to turn it on. And when they do get the warning, they can close it and go back to scrolling.” https://www.wsj.com/...
@gregorynyc Gregory Schmidt on x
Good morning! Instagram will introduce its first parental controls in March as it faces pressure to shield young users, and Elizabeth Holmes will resume testimony in her fraud trial today. More business news in our live briefing: https://www.nytimes.com/... @nytimesbusiness

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