Facebook knows that Instagram content can be “toxic” to teenage girls, according to internal company documents. Specifically, an in-depth investigation that the company itself has done corroborates something that many experts have said before: the social network Instagram generates “a major mental health problem for adolescents”.
Here’s reality, as internally accepted by IG: The company “makes body image issues worse for 1 in 3 teen girls.”
While the product is absolutely fine – good, really – for most users, it can harm for people who are vulnerable / in a rough spot regarding mental health.
– Jeff Horwitz (@JeffHorwitz) September 14, 2021
The leaked document collides with the speech of those responsible for Facebook. Do not forget that this is a fact that Facebook downplays in public (As an example we have the company’s plan to launch an Instagram for children under 13 that has encountered problems).
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“We worsened the body image of one in three girls”
According to the information now seen, Facebook concluded that “the 32% of teenage girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worseAnd that was featured on Facebook’s internal message board in March 2020. “Comparisons on Instagram can change the way young women see themselves.”
This is not the first study conducted by the firm. In 2019, as it is now known, another internal study stated that “we make body image problems worse in one in three adolescent girls“and also that” Teens Blame Instagram for Increased Rates of Anxiety and Depression“.
The problem encountered is not only about the complexes of the image. Facebook also concluded that Among teens who reported having suicidal thoughts, 13% of British users and 6% of Americans attributed the desire to commit suicide to Instagram.
With all this, we cannot forget that more than 40% of Instagram users are 22 years old or younger.
In public, Facebook has downplayed the negative effects of the app on teens, and has not made these investigations public. In fact, CEO Mark Zuckerberg at a Congressional hearing in March 2021 when asked about children and mental health said that what the company has investigated “is that using social apps to connect with other people can have mental health benefits“.
Additionally, in August, US Senators Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn asked in a letter to Zuckerberg to release Facebook’s internal research on the impact of its platforms on the mental health of young people. The company responded, among other matters, that your internal investigation is private property and “is kept confidential to promote open dialogue internally.”
Instagram focuses a lot on the body and lifestyle. The characteristics that Instagram identifies as most damaging to teens are precisely these issues, along with the tendency to share only the best moments and the pressure to look perfect, which can lead to teens having eating disorders or depression, claims internal research from March 2020, leaked by The Wall Street Journal.