The Client Safety, Product Security, and Knowledge Safety Subcommittee is predicted to carry a listening to on defending youngsters on social media platforms on Wednesday.
The occasion is scheduled to start out at 2:30 p.m. ET. Watch the listening to within the participant above.
The listening to notably focuses on the Meta-owned service, Instagram, with CEO Adam Mosseri testifying.
A hady earlier than the listening to, Instagram launched a characteristic that urges youngsters to take breaks from the photo-sharing platform and introduced different instruments geared toward defending younger customers from dangerous content material on the Fb-owned service.
The beforehand introduced “Take A Break” characteristic encourages teenagers to cease scrolling if they’ve been on the social media platform for some time, Instagram head Adam Mosseri mentioned in a weblog submit. It rolled out to the U.S., United Kingdom, Eire, Canada, New Zealand and Australia on Tuesday and would attain the remainder of the world early subsequent yr, he mentioned.
Younger customers will see notifications in regards to the characteristic and be urged to set reminders to take extra breaks going ahead, the submit mentioned. It’s one of many efforts that Fb, renamed Meta Platforms, has touted on its platforms because it weathers backlash about not doing sufficient to rein in dangerous content material and faces new laws trying to impose restrictions on tech giants.
Former Fb product supervisor turned whistleblower Frances Haugen has testified to U.S. and European lawmakers engaged on these measures, citing inside firm analysis suggesting that peer strain generated by Instagram has led to psychological well being and body-image issues in younger customers, particularly women, and in some circumstances, consuming issues and suicidal ideas.
WATCH: How social media platforms affect child and teenage psychological well being
She spoke once more final week to Congress, urging U.S. lawmakers to maneuver ahead with proposals launched after her first look in October. That features restrictions on the long-standing authorized protections for speech posted on social media platforms.
Haugen additionally has supplied steerage on new on-line guidelines which can be a lot additional alongside within the U.Ok. and European Union, which has pioneered efforts to rein in huge expertise firms.
On Tuesday, Instagram additionally introduced that its first instruments for folks will roll out early subsequent yr, permitting them to see how a lot time their teenagers spend on Instagram and set deadlines.
The social media platform additionally mentioned it’s growing options that can cease individuals from tagging or mentioning teenagers that don’t observe them, nudge younger customers to different issues if they’ve been targeted on one subject for some time and be stricter about what posts, hashtags and accounts it recommends to attempt to minimize down on doubtlessly dangerous or delicate content material.