Former Facebook project manager Frances Haugen, who released internal Facebook documents last year, argued that technological fixes should be implemented to make social media platforms safer for children in a piece for California nonprofit newsroom CalMatters published June 27.
Documents released by Ms. Haugen revealed that Facebook knew its platforms, particularly Instagram, were harming children by using tactics to keep kids scrolling for as long as possible and negatively affecting body image, and chose to do nothing about it.
"It is at the product-design level, rather than tacked-on screen-time features, that products for our children can be made meaningfully safer," Ms. Haugen wrote in CalMatters.
Facebook knows of technological features that would improve the safety of the platform, but company executives refuse to implement them because they would take from its profits, Ms. Haugen wrote.
Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri responded to the information from the leaked documents.
"We know that more people die than would otherwise because of car accidents, but by and large, cars create way more value in the world than they destroy … and I think social media is similar," he said on technology podcast "Recode."
To combat this, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act was created to protect children on social networking sites by turning off features like location tracking and banning sharing of childrens' personal information, and is making its way through the state legislature.