Protecting Kids Online: Instagram and Reforms for Young Users

Question"So do you prohibit known sex offenders from creating Instagram accounts?"

Response"Senator, human trafficking and any exploitation of children is abhorrent, and we don’t allow it on our platforms."

QuestionCites the Surgeon General's report tying social media to the teen mental health/suicide crisis and asks if he agrees with limiting use.

ResponseSays he doesn't believe research shows social media drives rising suicides, and the Surgeon General's report covers broader issues than that one link.

Question"So my first question is, is that in fact the truth, that you have been increasing money, advertising money to woo more teen kids onto your platform?"

ResponseDenies marketing budget growth was mainly aimed at teens, saying the increase wasn't majority teen-focused.

QuestionPresses on NYT reporting that Instagram's marketing budget rose from $67M to $390M largely to target teens.

ResponseCalls the report inaccurate, says the budget wasn't majority teen-focused, and doesn't recall the exact figures.

QuestionCites planning documents showing Instagram's marketing budget rising nearly five-fold from 2018-2021, allegedly earmarked mainly for teens, and requests yearly budget/percentage breakdowns targeting under-18s.

ResponseSays teens are one of several target demographics, describes the paused tween-Instagram project, and confirms a ~4.7x budget rise not mainly teen-focused.

QuestionChallenges whether any real policy changes resulted from internal research, suggesting reduced engagement would just cut revenue.

ResponseSays keeping users safe and satisfied matters because fierce competition from YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat means unhappy users would leave.

QuestionChallenges whether the business model depends on maximizing eyeballs and time, contrasting it with the Surgeon General's call to limit use.

ResponseArgues that long-term business success depends on people feeling good about time spent, distinguishing short- from long-term incentives and citing parental controls.

QuestionCites 850,000 accounts removed for failing age checks and challenges why he brushed off Jojo Siwa's admission of joining at age 8.

ResponseDenies indifference, cites investment in identifying under-13 users, and admits it was a missed teaching opportunity.

QuestionAsks whether Meta has invested enough in keeping underage users off the platform rather than prioritizing profit.

ResponseClaims Meta invests more than any competitor in this area and will keep improving age-detection technology.

QuestionNotes competitors committed to sharing research data with independent researchers and asks if Meta will make the same commitment.

ResponseCommits to providing meaningful data access so third-party researchers can independently study platform effects on well-being.

QuestionPresses for the raw research data and PowerPoint presentations on body image and suicide research, accusing him of withholding them despite promising transparency.

ResponseSays he'll try to release remaining data, but much was lost to retention policies, and commits to future external researcher access.

QuestionArgues Instagram is widely seen as addictive, especially through algorithms tied to eating disorders, and asks if the US should adopt UK-style restrictions on addictive design.

ResponseDisputes that research shows the product is addictive, citing data that Instagram helps more struggling teens than it harms on most issues.

QuestionAsks whether Instagram recommends weight-loss or plastic-surgery content to underage girls, citing a 13-year-old test account fed body-dysmorphia and sexualized content.

ResponseDenies recommending eating-disorder content, calls it a complex issue, cites roughly 5-in-10,000 views, and commits to reducing that toward zero.

QuestionAsks about consequences of body-image issues on the platform and whether there's a bias toward negative self-image content for teen girls.

ResponseCites research showing struggling teens say Instagram helps more than it hurts on most issues, denies knowing of a specific bias, and credits the platform with diversifying beauty standards.

Question"What specific steps has Instagram taken to detect and remove content promoting and glorifying eating disorders since its warning in March?"

ResponseSays eating-disorder promotion is banned and hashtags blocked, citing Q3 2021 removal stats with about 96% proactive detection.

QuestionPresses Mosseri to commit to a legally mandated, independently funded (not industry-run) oversight body with power to audit algorithms and require changes.

ResponseMosseri agrees standards/requirements should exist in principle but doesn't commit to a specific legally mandated independent body.

QuestionCites parents whose reports of dangerous material got no response — one only got a response after CNN intervened — and asks whether Instagram should be obligated to respond to reports.

ResponseMosseri says Instagram tries to respond to all reports and treats failures to do so as mistakes, without committing to a formal obligation.

QuestionAsks Mosseri to commit to permanently ending development of an Instagram version for children under 13, not just pausing it.

ResponseMosseri declines to commit to permanently killing Instagram Kids, defends the original rationale, and commits only that any future under-13 product would require explicit parental consent.

QuestionAsks whether Instagram is still researching under-13 users for Instagram Kids, and who has authority to permanently kill the project.

ResponseMosseri denies researching 8-year-olds specifically, confirms the project is paused, and confirms he personally holds decision authority over it.

QuestionAsks whether Instagram requires minors to link their accounts to a parent/guardian account.

ResponseMosseri confirms no account-linking requirement exists; says a first version of parental controls launches March 2022.

QuestionRequests data on how many people convicted/indicted for human, sex, or drug trafficking were using Instagram.

ResponseMosseri commits only to following up, doesn't provide any figure live.

QuestionBlackburn's staff created a test account for a 15-year-old that defaulted to public, not private; asks why, and whether the public option should be removed entirely for minors.

ResponseMosseri admits a bug — under-16 accounts default to private on Android/iOS but not on the web — and commits to fixing it, without addressing the "remove the public option entirely" ask.

QuestionPresses on whether the default "include my account in recommendations" setting should apply to minors, and whether adults who aren't flagged as suspicious can still find/follow/message minor accounts.

ResponseMosseri defends keeping the recommendation-inclusion default on for minors, and says private-account follow requests require the minor's own approval — doesn't address unsolicited discovery/messaging beyond that.

QuestionPresses, under a reminder that Mosseri is under oath, on whether Instagram treats teens as a "feeder" demographic for growing the platform.

ResponseMosseri doesn't directly deny the "feeder" framing, pivots to citing Instagram's $5B safety spend and 40,000-person safety/integrity staff.