Instagram, TikTok compete over teen safety

The news: Multiple Facebook studies concluded that Instagram adversely affects teens, per a Wall Street Journal report.

Among the findings:

  • 32% of teenage girls indicated that when they had negative thoughts about their appearance, Instagram exacerbated those feelings.
  • 14% of teenage boys in the US said Instagram worsened how they felt about themselves.
  • 13% of teens in the UK and 6% of teens in the US who reported suicidal thoughts traced those thoughts back to Instagram usage.
  • More than 40% of teen users in the US and UK who felt “unattractive” traced those feelings to Instagram.
  • “Social comparison is worse on Instagram,” said one 2020 Facebook memo. It noted that TikTok’s focus on theatrics and Snapchat’s filters (often silly ones) that focus on facial close-ups avoid similar comparison issues.
  • Instagram’s Explore page often pushes users toward potentially harmful content.

The challenge: Moving forward, the platform will need to balance solving this problem with keeping younger users engaged; more than 40% of its users are 22 years old or younger, per Facebook memos reviewed by The Journal.

In response to The Journal story, Instagram published a blog post asserting that social media has positive and negative impacts on users, citing two 2018 studies as evidence.

TikTok sees an opportunity: The Instagram rival announced steps it’s taking to protect users.

  • When users search for eating disorder-related terms, instead of displaying harmful content, TikTok directs them to in-app support resources where they can call or send an SMS to the National Eating Disorders Association.
  • It developed safety guides in partnership with the International Association for Suicide Prevention and other suicide prevention organizations.
  • It also added public service announcements at the top of certain hashtag pages, like #whatieatinaday, that may include a mix of positive and negative content.

This head-to-head on user safety comes as Instagram faces growing pressure from TikTok in other areas. In Q2, TikTok’s engagement rate for megainfluencer content was 11.83% compared with 0.35% on Instagram, per a recent CreatorIQ study. CreatorIQ defines megainfluencers as accounts with 1 million or more followers.

What this means: Facebook announced plans for a version of Instagram targeted at kids 13 and younger, but that may become more difficult due to The Journal's story.

  • Without taking aggressive steps to solve the problem, Facebook could tempt regulators to get involved.
  • There’s bipartisan criticism of how Facebook handles mental health issues, including from Reps. Lori Trahan, D-M.A., and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-W.A. Trahan has stated that Facebook should “immediately abandon plans for Instagram for Kids,” per CNBC.
  • “Facebook has already faced significant pressure to abandon its plans for a kids’ version of Instagram,” said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence. “We believe these new revelations could force Facebook to acquiesce and shelve the project.”

"Behind the Numbers" Podcast