HOUSTON — Why mental health experts say Instagram’s new safety features may not be enough to protect the mental health of teens?
According to the tech giant’s own data, Instagram can be bad for teen’s mental health. A former Facebook data scientist turned whistleblower revealed the company’s own research showed Instagram harmed teens' mental health, particularly teen girls.
The researchers found one in three teen girls said the social media site made their body image issues worse, while six percent of teens who struggled with suicidal thoughts said Instagram played a role.
In the wake of those revelations, the company has announced new features to reportedly make teens safer and healthier online. They include an alert to prompt users to take a break after 10, 20 or 30 minutes of scrolling. There will also be an option to mass delete old posts.
And Instagram says it is working on a way to alert teens when they spend too much time on posts related to a single topic. That’s after critics said Instagram’s algorithm serves up to teens too many posts on diet and weight loss.
But mental health experts say these changes are not enough. One told The Washington Post that if Instagram can’t be certain its algorithm isn’t promoting harmful material to teens, it shouldn’t be using the algorithm on teenagers.
Another noted that the visual nature of the app itself was problematic for teens, creating a focus on physical appearance. Most said Instagram had to do a better job being transparent.