Adam Mosseri testifies in Meta child safety trial, admits Instagram struggled to convince teens to use Take a Break feature
Follow UsInstagram head Adam Mosseri testified Tuesday in Meta’s child safety trial.
He admitted that the company struggled for years to get teenagers to use its 'Take a Break' feature.
Internal Meta documents shown during the testimony showed that adoption was only 1.8 per cent in 2021.
Instagram head Adam Mosseri testified Tuesday in Meta’s child safety trial and admitted that the company struggled for years to get teenagers to use its ‘Take a Break’ feature. The tool was introduced in 2021 to remind users to stop scrolling after spending a certain amount of time on Instagram. Mosseri said Instagram first asked teens to turn on the feature themselves through notifications. While that approach increased adoption slightly, it did not work as well as the company expected. Meta later made the feature available by default as part of Teen Accounts. The testimony came as Meta has been accused of designing Instagram and other platforms in ways that keep young users engaged for longer.
SurveyMosseri said Instagram initially did not know how few teens would choose to activate the feature. Internal Meta documents shown during the testimony showed that adoption was only 1.8 per cent in 2021.
“It started very low. We started trying to do those notifications, encouraging teens to turn it on themselves,” Mosseri said, according to Business Insider. “That helped, but not nearly as much as we had hoped. And then we eventually made it on by default as part of Teen Accounts.”
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The testimony also raised questions about how Meta described the feature publicly.
In a December 2021 blog post, Instagram said that more than 90 per cent of teens who switched on Take a Break continued to keep the reminders active. However, the post did not mention that only 1.8 per cent of teens had activated the feature at the time.
“Early test results show that once teens set the reminders, more than 90% of them keep them on,” Instagram wrote at that time.
When asked if the company told the public that adoption was low, Mosseri said, “No, because we were planning on iterating on it and trying to drive that number up over time, which we did.”
Mosseri said Instagram had expected to increase awareness and attract teens who wanted the feature. But he said most teens did not choose to turn it on.
“My expectation is that we were going to raise awareness and let the teens who want the feature turn it on,” Mosseri said. “Turned out most teens didn’t want it. We decided to push forward with it anyway.”
The case is being led by a group of state attorneys general, including California Attorney General Rob Bonta. They accuse Meta of putting profits ahead of the safety of young users. The states also allege that Meta mishandled children’s privacy and misled the public about the safety of its platforms.
