A group of Democratic lawmakers is calling on Facebook to scrap its plans of releasing a version of its Instagram social media platform targeting children and young adults. The lawmakers asked the company's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, to cancel the launch of "Instagram for Kids" following the release of a report indicating that the app was causing mental health issues among its teenage users.
The letter to Facebook also comes as the Senate Commerce Committee announces its plans to conduct an investigation into Instagram with the help of a "whistleblower" working in the company.
The letter, which was signed by Senator Ed Markey and Representatives Kathy Castor and Lori Trahan, pointed out how teenagers, particularly young girls, are now experiencing increase mental health problems, including suicidal thoughts, because of social media apps like Instagram.
"Children and teens are uniquely vulnerable populations online, and these findings paint a clear and devastating picture of Instagram as an app that poses significant threats to young people's wellbeing," the letter said.
The claims made by the lawmakers were based on a report published on Tuesday by researchers working at Instagram. The report, which was posted on Facebook's internal message board, seemingly showed how Instagram had impacted the lives of millions of young users.
A page on the report indicated that Instagram was causing body image issues in at least one in three teen girls that are using the app. The report said about 32% of teen girls agreed that the app made them feel ashamed about their own bodies. It went on to say that about 13% of UK users and 6% of U.S. users traced their suicidal thoughts to their constant use of the photo-sharing app.
Facebook did not deny the existence of the report. It also refused to make the report available to the public, stating that it contained proprietary data. According to the report, Instagram currently has 22 million teens in the U.S. actively using the app on a daily basis.
In March, sources claimed that Facebook was planning to launch a version of Instagram that was intended for children under the age of 13. Instagram had admitted that it was exploring the idea but declined to provide any other specifics.
