Facebook has introduced several new features designed to better protect children when using the company's platforms. According to former Facebook executive Frances Haugen about the negative impact of the online network on minors , Facebook's Vice President for Global Affairs, Nick Clegg, presented the new features on two US talk shows. Among other things, the aim is to encourage teenagers to take a break from using the Instagram photo platform and to be made aware of the fact that they repeatedly look at the same content that is classified as inappropriate.
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The Menlo Park, California-based company is also planning new controls for parents of teenagers on an optional basis so that they can better monitor their children's online behavior. But for critics, all of this is too vague. You doubt whether the new features will work at all. "There are tremendous reasons to be skeptical," said Josh Golin of Fairplay, an organization that studies marketing practices with children in mind. Many children would go online with accounts their parents didn't know about anyway. In addition, it is doubtful whether they can be persuaded to take a break with virtual nudges. Facebook must show how exactly it wants to implement these plans.
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Clegg said on CNN that his company is constantly trying to improve its products. "We can't wave a magic wand to make everyone's life perfect," he explained. However, Facebook has invested US $ 13 billion over the past few years to ensure that the platform is secure. 40,000 employees worked on such problems.
Whistleblower Haugen had accused her ex-employer in front of a Senate committee, in order to know the damage that Instagram is causing to some young people, but to have refrained from making changes out of greed for profit. When asked whether the algorithms used by Facebook had also spread the misinformation before the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, Clegg said, without the algorithms, Facebook users would see even more agitation and misinformation. The algorithms are "huge spam filters," he said.
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