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Facebook is delaying an Instagram app for users under the age of 13.

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The social media giant said it still wanted to build a child-focused Instagram product but would postpone the plans in the face of criticism.
Facebook said on Monday that it had paused development of an “Instagram Kids” service that would be tailored for children 13 years old or younger, as the social network increasingly faces questions about the app’s effect on young people’s mental health. The pullback comes ahead of a congressional hearing this week about internal research conducted by Facebook, and reported in The Wall Street Journal, that showed the company knew of the harmful mental health effects that Instagram was having on teenage girls. The revelations have set off a public relations crisis for the Silicon Valley company and led to a fresh round of calls for new regulation. Facebook said it still wanted to build an Instagram product intended for children that would have a more “age appropriate experience,” but was postponing the plans in the face of criticism. “This will give us time to work with parents, experts, policymakers and regulators, to listen to their concerns, and to demonstrate the value and importance of this project for younger teens online today,” Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, wrote in a blog post. The decision to halt the app’s development represents a rare reversal for Facebook. In recent years, the social network has become perhaps the world’s most heavily scrutinized corporation, grappling with privacy accusations, hate speech, misinformation and allegations of anti-competitive business practices. Regulators, lawmakers, journalists and civil society groups around the world have criticized the company for the effects it is having on society. With Instagram Kids, Facebook had argued that young people were using the photo-sharing app anyway, despite age-requirement rules, so it would be better to develop a version more suitable for them. Facebook said the “kids” app was intended for those age 10 to 12 and would require parental permission to join, forgo ads and carry more age-appropriate content and features. Parents would be able to control what accounts their child followed. YouTube, which is owned by Google, has released a children’s version of its app. But since BuzzFeed broke the news earlier this year that Facebook was working on the app, the company has faced scrutiny.

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