Instagram Kids may not launch anytime soon as company hits pause on project after criticism

Instagram has put its Instagram Kids project on hold for the time being. The development comes after the photo-sharing service received severe criticism for the project. Instagram Kids had been touted as requiring parental permission to join and was supposed to provide ad-free, age-appropriate content, but US lawmakers and advocacy groups have urged the social media giant to drop its launch plans, citing safety concerns.

"We won't stop pressuring Facebook until they permanently pull the plug," said Josh Golin, executive director of Fairplay, an advocacy group focused on kids. Instagram, in a blog post, noted that building Instagram Kids was the right thing to do, but that it was pausing the work and would continue building on its parental supervision tools.

"The reality is that kids are already online, and we believe that developing age-appropriate experiences designed specifically for them is far better for parents than where we are today," it said, noting that there were app versions of Google's YouTube and ByteDance's TikTok for those under 13.

Four Democratic lawmakers including US Senators Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal said on Monday they were pleased by Facebook's decision but said the pause is insufficient. "Facebook has completely forfeited the benefit of the doubt when it comes to protecting young people online and it must completely abandon this project," said the lawmakers, who also include US Representatives Kathy Castor and Lori Trahan.

"Many teens we heard from feel that using Instagram helps them when they are struggling with the kinds of hard moments and issues teenagers have always faced," Facebook said in a separate blog post in response Wall Street Journal's recent report. "On 11 of the 12 issues in the slide referenced by the Journal, such as eating issues, loneliness, anxiety and sadness, teenage girls who said they experienced these challenges were more likely to say that Instagram made these issues better vs. worse," the company said.

In 2017, Facebook had launched the standalone Messenger Kids app, an instant messaging platform for children under the age of 13, which is controlled by a parent's Facebook account. Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal published a report that focused on data suggesting that Instagram had a harmful effect on teenagers, particularly teen girls and that Facebook had made minimal efforts to address the issue.