Meta child safety trial: What Instagram boss said in testimony
What's the story
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, testified in a California court on Tuesday. He admitted that the "Take a Break" feature introduced in 2021 to help teens manage their time on the app was not as widely adopted as he had hoped. The admission came during an ongoing trial where several US states are suing Meta for allegedly designing Instagram and Facebook to addict children and collect their data.
Feature details
Feature prompts young users to take a break
The "Take a Break" feature prompts young users with a pop-up message to take a break from the app after using it for a certain amount of time.
However, an internal document presented as evidence by the prosecution revealed that at one point, only 1.8% of teens actually used this feature.
The pop-up notifications "helped, but not nearly as much as we hoped," Mosseri said in the court.
Information withholding
States argue Meta violated consumer protection laws
The states suing Meta argue that the company withheld information from users and parents that could have helped them understand the ineffectiveness of this feature. They claim this is a violation of consumer protection laws.
Mosseri had previously claimed in a blog post that "more than 90%" of users of the feature kept it on, but he didn't mention its extremely low usage rate.
Disclosure confirmation
Mosseri confirmed Meta never disclosed this number
When asked if there was no way for parents to know that only 1-2% of teens would use the feature, Mosseri confirmed: "Correct."
He also confirmed that Meta has never disclosed this number.
This lack of transparency has been a key point in the states' argument against Meta, who claim the company violated consumer protection laws by not disclosing this information.
Defense strategy
No silver bullets to problems like this, Mosseri said
Mosseri defended Meta's efforts to tackle problematic use by teens on Instagram.
He said that "Take a Break" and "Quiet Mode," another feature that silences alerts, are just a small part of the many features the company has introduced for this purpose.
"In general, there are no silver bullets to problems like this. We have to do many things that add up," he added.
Content exposure
Mosseri questioned about communications among Instagram employees
Mosseri was also questioned about communications among Instagram employees regarding a presentation on the problematic content teens are exposed to on Instagram.
The communications suggested that Meta's lawyers had advised product designers to limit what data Mosseri would see in the presentation.
While he wasn't aware of this exchange, Mosseri said it "makes sense" they would want to ensure accuracy and truthfulness.
Information usage
Mosseri defends Meta's efforts to protect teens
Mosseri defended Meta's efforts to protect teens and opposed the use of certain information out of context.
"I think parents want to have good information about services, risks, etc. That's different than reporters or lawyers taking small bits from much larger documents and focusing on them in things like articles and trials," he said.
The trial is expected to continue for another five weeks.