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More than five dozen clergy members and other religious leaders want Instagram to permanently abandon controversial plans to set up a children’s version of the app, the latest voices in a growing chorus of criticism around the idea.
“The app will serve as a catalytic gateway for young children to the already-documented problems adversely impacting teens, as well as a vast array of unforeseen issues as commercial culture further encroaches on the sanctity of childhood,” the group writes in a new letter. distributed by FairPlay, a Boston-based organization that advocates for better protection for kids online.
Meta, Instagram’s parent company, last year said it would pause plans for Instagram Kids after whistle-blower Frances Haugen leaked documents to the Wall Street Journal showing how Instagram can negatively affect teen mental health. Instagram has argued it could design a safe app for children and place careful limits around its use, similar to Facebook’s Messenger Kids app.
To alleviate fears further, Meta December and added new parental controls to Instagram, which technically only allows children 13 and older. But it is a widely acknowledged problem that many kids don’t follow those rules; For example, the influencer JoJo Siwa has said she started using Instagram at age, a fact she discussed in a livestream conversation with Instagram chief Adam Mosseri. The new parent controls were unveiled a day before Mosseri tested for the first time in Congress, where Democratic and Republican senators alike denounced Instagram for Kids and pressed Mosseri to fully give up the project. He declined.
Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg have spent the last several years weathering immense criticism from secular minds, including FairPlay, a longtime fierce opponent. They have largely been unsucccessful, and the company has mostly continued on its course, amassing over 3 billion users across the world despite well documented problems around content moderation and child safety. But Facebook is now facing declining growth for the first time, and Meta’s share price has plummeted lately, the stock experiencing a record-setting $ 230 billion one-day drop last week. And the company rebranded itself last year, an attempt to distance itself from past problems as it attempts to create new virtual reality technology.
While Facebook has definiely taken some heat, it is still unusual for such a large collection of clergy to try to publicly cajole a corporation to change its mind. Their remarks are a reflection of the moment, a time when Meta’s problems maybe catching up to it and long-frustrated opponents like FairPlay may feel emboldened to press their case further.
The new seven-page letter comes from religious leaders across every major faith and cites a wide range of scripture in pressing Instagram to abandon the kids’ app. It references the Islamic poet Rumi, Pope Francis and the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh and includes passages from the Quran, the Bible and the Upanishads, a foundational text for Hindus. Among other arguments, the clergy make the case that an Instagram for Kids would hurt children by keeping them inside their houses: “Essential childhood play is enhanced when experienced outdoors. Countless saints and seers have described the natural world as a place where the Divine speaks. “
