Facebook says it will work on "Take a break" warning for teens on Instagram after whistleblower calls it out

Last week, Facebook was called out by an ex-employee called Frances Haugen, who accused the social media giant of putting profit before the safety of young users of the Facebook-own Instagram platform. She accused the company of knowing the negative impact it had on teens and still not doing anything to prevent it. Now, Facebook has decided to take action, reports MySmartPrice, and Instagram will now take steps to address the usage addiction of teens and kids.

Instagram will have notifications to nudge young users away from content that's not good for them

Facebook's VP of global affairs, Nick Clegg, stated at a State of the Union event hosted by CNN, that the company is going to address the issue when youngsters are addicted to Instagram or exposed to harmful content on the social media platform. Clegg stated the company is working on introducing some sort of notifications or warnings that would "nudge" teenagers to look at other content if they're looking at something harmful to them. He said that the system will determine if teenagers are looking at the same content over and over again and determine if it's content that could be bad for their wellbeing.

The nudge will come in the form of prompts that urge users to visit other posts or accounts. This way, the company will attempt to help users address issues of being obsessed or addicted to a specific type of content on Instagram.


It is not clear if these steps are in direct response to the accusations raised by Frances Haugen, but this statement does come after she testified in front of the US Senate, where she claimed the Facebook group does not take studies of its users' mental health seriously and prioritizes commercial profit over the well-being of the people who spent time on its social media platforms.

Currently, there's no timeframe or exact date for the rollout of the features mentioned above. Facebook is also expected to give parents more ways to monitor what their children are doing on the company's social media platforms.

Whistleblower Frances Haugen recently revealed saddening information about Facebook and Instagram

Recently, Frances Haugen, an ex-employee of Facebook, revealed what she knows about the social media giant practices in relation to Instagram, Facebook, and young people on these platforms. According to her, Facebook had multiple research documents showing that there is a negative impact on young people's mental wellbeing from platforms such as Instagram, and still decided to ignore the findings and not take action.

Another thing she highlighted is that Facebook also didn't stop the spread of misinformation on its platform despite the company's claims it is working to combat it. She went ahead and said that Facebook was aware its algorithms promoted harmful or polarizing content but then failed to deploy countermeasures that lasted.

The divisive content is promoted become it helps engagement with the platform, according to the whistleblower, and she had Facebook’s own research showing how hateful, divisive, and polarizing content inspires people to anger. If Facebook would to change the algorithm, it would mean people will spend less time on Facebook, and thus, less money from ads will be made for the social media giant.

Haugen said that her goal is not to take down Facebook, but to help fix it. She will testify in Congress about the impact Facebook has on young users on Tuesday, December 5th.