Have you ever thought about taking a break from your social media? Now, Instagram will incorporate a new feature for teens to avoid harmful content.
These weeks were particularly bad for Instagram and, in general, for the entire Facebook universe, which was even more affected by the recent fall of its services for more than six hours.
However, probably the worst case is that of the publication in The Wall Street Journal, which ensures that Instagram is a toxic social network for teenagers.
This publication became more relevant with the recent statements of a former Facebook employee, who, among many other things, revealed how the most powerful social network on the planet has given priority to the commercial aspect over the mental well-being of its users.
This, however, is not the first time that it becomes clear how social networks affect, to a certain extent, Internet users, especially those adolescents who suffer from anxiety, depression, among other mental disorders.
In that sense, according to what was revealed by the former Facebook employee, Instagram is being particularly harmful for adolescents due to the content that is usually published on said social network: images that expose aesthetic bodies, as well as the triumphs of some users, among many others who have undoubtedly put the platform in check.
Now, as part of a strategy to work on the safety of users and, in turn, to offer them a better experience, Instagram is announcing a new function with which it seeks to avoid potentially harmful content for Internet users.
The idea of this tool is that users can take a “break” and away from content that could negatively affect their mental health, as revealed by both the publication in The Wall Street Journal and in the statements of Frances Haugen .
Through a statement, which includes The VergeNick Clegg, vice president of global affairs at Facebook, spoke about the importance of this new feature for users of the social network:
“We are going to present something that I think will make a considerable difference, which is where our systems see that a teenager is watching the same content over and over again, and it is content that may not be conducive to their well-being. We will nudge them to look at other content. “
In other words, what this function will allow is that Instagram users will receive a notification so that, if necessary, they can look at other types of content within the platform.
When will it be necessary? As revealed by Nick Clegg, the platform, through its system, will send said notification to the user when they are looking at a publication on more than one occasion, which may be classified as harmful to their mental health.
So far, it is not known when this feature will be available to the millions of users who use Instagram. Likewise, no further details were disclosed, although more information is expected to be released soon.
Without a doubt, we are living a complicated panorama where social networks have been presented as a kind of enemy for users. And it is that, beyond the functionality that they may have, sites like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok and others are a space where harassment and hate speech is very easily filtered between people, minors being the most vulnerable to these practices.
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