Facebook to reveal research into Instagram’s impact on teenagers

Facebook is set to reveal its investigation into Instagram’s impact on teens sometime in the coming days. The Wall Street Journal claimed, based on slides from that research, that Instagram has a negative effect; Facebook denied that without showing any results.

Facebook CEO Nick Clegg said at an event of The Atlantic that the company will dot the i’s and then publish the slides. The US Congress will first have access to it and then the research will be made publicly available. It is the first time that Facebook has said that the results of the investigation will be made public. Facebook previously contradicted the picture that the WSJ painted. The newspaper claimed that the investigation made Facebook aware that Instagram is harmful to some of the visiting teens.

Facebook is considering tools for teens for whom Instagram is causing problems. “Even if that’s a minority of teens who have a bad experience a minority of the time, it’s still important to do,” Clegg said. There could be tools that detect whether teens often watch certain types of content associated with negative experiences on Instagram and then nudge users to other types of content. Clegg does not mention what content that is or when the tool will be released. There will also be a tool that advises teenagers to get off Instagram for a while if they have been on it for too long.

Facebook’s chief of security must also testify before the US Senate on Thursday, CNBC writes. After the criticism that followed the WSJ article, Instagram decided to stop developing a children’s version of Instagram.