"Every day I see the positive impact that Instagram has
for young people everywhere," chief executive Adam Mosseri said in a post.
"I want to make sure that it stays that way, which
means above all keeping them safe on Instagram."
Instagram's parent company Meta, which also oversees
Facebook, is battling a serious reputational crisis after a whistleblower
leaked reams of internal documents showing executives knew of their sites'
risks for teens' well-being, prompting a renewed US push for regulation.
Mosseri is to testify Wednesday at a Senate committee
hearing titled "Protecting Kids Online: Instagram and Reforms for Young
Users."
"After bombshell reports about Instagram's toxic
impacts, we want to hear straight from the company's leadership why it uses
powerful algorithms that push poisonous content to children driving them down
rabbit holes to dark places, and what it will do to make its platform
safer," said Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat.
Instagram will be stricter about what it recommends to teen
users, and will stop people from mentioning teens who don't follow them on the
platform, according to Mosseri.
Instagram will also start "nudging" teens toward
new topics if there is one they have been dwelling on for a while, and suggest
they take a break if they have been spending a lot of time on the platform,
Mosseri said.
"If someone has been scrolling for a certain amount of
time, we'll ask them to take a break from Instagram," Mosseri said.
The break suggestion feature launched in Australia, Britain,
Canada, and the United States, and will expand to other countries by early next
year, according to Instagram.
The platform also introduced an educational hub for parents,
to "help them get more involved with their teen's experiences" and
tools for them to set limits on how much time their children spend in the app,
Mosseri said.
"Meta is attempting to shift attention from their
mistakes by rolling out parental guides, use timers, and content control
features that consumers should have had all along," Republican Senator
Marsha Blackburn said in a statement.
"My colleagues and I see right through what they are
doing."
Meta has vehemently pushed back at accusations that its
platforms are "toxic" for teens or that it puts profit over user
safety.
Facing pressure, the company had previously announced that
it would suspend but not abandon the development of a version of Instagram
meant for users younger than 13.