Facebook knew that young girls were under pressure to look perfect on Instagram, often hurting themselves in the process and even thinking about suicide. But the social media giant did nothing to address these issues, a new report reveals.
According to documents provided by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Facebook was aware of the problems since 2019 and the platform knew that "Instagram was worsening" the issue of body image for one in three teenage girls
Instagram-related depression
The WSJ claims that Facebook, which bought Instagram in 2012, ignored reports with data like "13% of British teens and 6% of American teens wanted to kill themselves and a significant part of the source of their depression was Instagram.
Among the findings in the documents, which are part of a series of internal communications on Facebook examined by the WSJ, states:
"Teenagers blame Instagram for the increase in anxiety and depression ... This reaction was sudden and persistent in all groups. Some aspects of Instagram make each other worse to create a perfect storm."
While Facebook claims to provide an equal platform for its over three billion users, in reality the social media company created a system to exclude high-profile users, such as celebrities, journalists and politicians from some or all of the rules. its contents.
Five presentations were made on the issue of mental health among Instagram users after surveying thousands of people and observing focus groups. Studies found that mental health problems among Instagram's newest audience were not of a general nature, they were specific to the photo sharing app.
In one of the presentation slides, the Facebook research team points out that the issue of "social comparison" was worse on Instagram than it was on other platforms.
40% of Instagram audience is in the age group 22 years or less, according to the WSJ. About 22 million teens from the US alone sign up for Instagram every day.
Source: CNBVT
