There Is growing Support For Regulating Big Tech After Wednesdays Hearing
The night before Instagram’s CEO was set to testify on Capitol Hill Instagram said it will take a stricter approach to what it recommends to teens. The app said they would also encourage teens to take a break after hours of prolonged use.
The app owned by Facebook parent Meta is under the microscope out of concern of its impact on children. Moving forward Instagram says it will point teens towards other topics if they appear to be dwelling on something. In addition Instagram will soon roll out controls allowing parents to monitor the time they spend on Instagram. This new tool would allow parents the ability to set limits to how long their teen will be able to use Instagram.
Leaked internal documents showed the app encourages prolonged use and can lead to some teens even consider suicide something the company disputes.
Fast forward to Wednesday in the Senate hotseat Instagram pushed back against claims that the app can be toxic for teens. CEO Adam Mosseri said on Capitol Hill “Respectfully I disagree the data doesn’t prove that”.
The CEO told Senators Instagram supports an industry wide practice to best determine best practices for safety issues like verifying age, age appropriate experiences, and effective parental controls.
Even though Instagram did release information ahead of the hearing of things they are going to start doing, Senators were not impressed with some calling it “too little too late”.
Experts say from this hearing it is another indication of bipartisan support growing for regulating big tech particularly when it comes to kids and teens with some senators relating big tech to the new tobacco. Adding “you need to stop selling it to our kids”.
