Facebook Inc (FB.O), which is under criticism over internal data indicating its Instagram program harmed kids’ mental health, plans to highlight what it claims were more positive outcomes during a U.S. Senate hearing on Thursday.
According to the hearing, Antigone Davis, Facebook’s global head of safety, will go over the company’s previously stated steps to better protect children and teens online, including defaulting users under the age of 16 to private profiles when they join Instagram.
“Our research showed that many teens who are struggling say that Instagram helps them deal with many of the hard issues that are so common to being a teen,” Davis’s written testimony says.
For the past week, Facebook has been under criticism after the Wall Street Journal published internal documents revealing that the social media firm was aware that Instagram was harming teenage users’ mental health.
Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn said in a statement released ahead of the hearing that “Facebook knows that its services are actively harming their young users,” citing Facebook’s in-house analysts who “performed a series of deep dives into teen use of Instagram that revealed, ‘aspects of Instagram exacerbate each other to create a perfect storm.’
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal dubbed the session “Protecting Kids Online.” According to Davis’ prepared statements, internal Facebook data shows that 57 percent of young girls who indicated they had lately felt unhappy stated Instagram helped them feel better.
According to the testimonies, 51% of young females who felt lonely stated Instagram had a beneficial impact on them. A Facebook whistleblower will testify about the business and how it handles children’s online safety at a Senate hearing including Blumenthal and Blackburn on Tuesday. The senators kept the identity of the whistleblower a secret.
