Is Your State AG One of the 40 Asking Mark Zuckerberg to NOT Create an Instagram App for Kids Under 13?

By B.N. Frank

For many years now, tech insiders (including Bill Gates and Steve Jobs) have limited their own kids’ use and exposure to screens. This includes making their nannies sign no-screen contracts and sending their kids to private low-tech or no tech schools.

Expert warnings about kids’ use and exposure to screens are nothing new and continue to be issued (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). Ditto on expert warnings about kids’ use and exposure to social media.

Nevertheless, Mark Zuckerberg wants to introduce a new Instagram app for kids under the age of 13. Good luck, parents.

From Business Insider:

40 state attorneys general sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg urging Facebook to abandon plans to build an Instagram app for kids under 13

Attorneys general are urging Facebook to scrap plans to build an Instagram app for kids under 13.
In a letter, the AGs cited Facebook’s poor track record of protecting kids online.
They also cited research showing social media harms kids’ physical, emotional, and mental health.
See more stories on Insider’s business page.

A group of 40 state attorneys general wrote a letter to Mark Zuckerberg urging Facebook to abandon its plans for an Instagram app for kids under the age of 13, accusing Facebook of having “historically failed to protect the welfare of children on its platforms.”

The letter, viewed by Insider, emphasized the role that social media has on the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of children, “who are not equipped to navigate the challenges of having a social media account.” That includes a lack of understanding around privacy and deciding what is appropriate to post in such a permanent nature.

Zuckerberg downplayed social media’s harm to children during a March hearing before Congress, though he acknowledged that he was “aware of the issues” surrounding kids’ health online.

Read full article

See letter with signatures here