Facebook Will Be On The Hot SeatAgainAt Senate Hearing Thursday Because Of Instagram Kids App – Forbes

BRAZIL - 2020/08/28: In this photo illustration icons of Facebook and Instagram apps are displayed ... [+] on a smartphone. (Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

More than most companies and organizations, Facebook has for years been in the harsh glare of the public spotlight for their activities, policies and products.

The latest chapter for this apparently crisis-prone companyits decision yesterday to postpone rollout of a version of Instagram for childrenis playing out in headlines around the world. The spotlight will get even brighter and hotter this Thursday when a Facebook executive testifies about the app at a public hearing conducted by a U.S. Senate Commerce subcommittee.

What Facebook and Instagram are saying and doing about the controversyand how they are saying and doing itprovide business leaders with important lessons about responding to, managing and communicating about crisis situations.

Facebooks image, reputation and credibility are on the line once more. As the New York Times noted, the company, is so mistrusted in Congress that Apple has tolobby on Facebooks behalf. Far more people ina recent surveyhad anunfavorable view of Facebookthan they did of other U.S. technology giants. And Facebooks user numbers arent growing much in the United States, by far the most important advertising market.

Instagram Head Adam Mosseri said in a news release that, We firmly believe that its better for parents to have the option to give their children access to a version of Instagram that is designed for themwhere parents can supervise and control their experiencethan relying on an apps ability to verify the age of kids who are too young to have an ID.

While we stand by the need to develop this experience, weve decided to pause this project. 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, he said.

Ari Lightman, professor of digital media and marketing at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College said, Facebookand Adam Mosseri did the right thing in pulling the project for now but perhaps not in terms of how they addressed the public.

This is an absolute powder keg with an epidemic of misinformation, effects of the pandemic and a variety of academic reports from NGOs and reporters on the harm to teens associated with Instagram use.In addition, it happens when reporters allege that Facebook knew of the report on harm to teen girls and largely dismissed it or ignored it altogether, he said.

Lightman also observed that, This represents a very large [consumer] segment for Facebook/Instagram (Gen Alpha). [It] might represent a new captive audience as the time spent on the app has been partially eroded by Snapchat, TikTok and Discord.However, in their defense Facebook/Instagram did not even have an opportunity to discuss how the platform might work for tweens 10-12.

So they got called out even before putting together product design and functionality and now have a moment to pause and build out the right platform addressing concerns from educators, parents, mental health practitioners, etc. he noted.

Lightman said, The takeaway is to listen to the market and assess all the different risk/benefit vectors prior to initiating a campaign.

By not addressing this, it leaves the public in doubt [the] substantive changes they might be able to make if they do launch the platform for tweens in the future.Being transparent and addressing concerns that might be out there as well as how they might work with advocacy groups, regulators and educators is critical for any organization looking at developing a digital platform for this age group, Lightman concluded.

Baruch Labunski, president of Rank Secure, said that, As a marketing expert, I understand that a company in crisis sometimes has to tackle difficult issues. Its easier to manage a crisis when that company can choose when to make an announcement and if that company is being forthcoming and acting in the interest of the public. Neither is true in the case of Instagram Kids.

[Instagram head] Adam Mosseri may tell you about the wonderful safety features Instagrams new product for kids aged 10-12 will have, Lubanski said. [But] thats less credible when hes only discussing the companys decision to pause their work on the appBuzzfeed broke the story about Instagrams internal announcement earlier this year and a deluge of criticism ensued, he said.

Labunski noted that, One of Mosseris justifications for the launch of Instagram Kids is that kids under 13 are already using Instagram, despite the platforms rules. He says that if kids are going to use it anyway, the platform should be safer and bring with it more parental controls.

Its my opinion thats simply insufficient and also not credible, he said. Facebook and Instagram already consume enormous amounts of the time and attention of adults. Starting kids earlier? Its impossible for me to see how thats in the public interest. We know that hate speech and body shaming flourish on social media platforms. Who in their right mind thinks we need to send invitations so 10-year-olds can participate?

Mike Bienstock is CEOof Semaphore, a management and licensing firm. He noted that, YouTube has been struggling with the kids issue for years. They developed a generation of kids channels and then destroyed them by withholding ads when things started going poorly PR-wise. In turn,many kids' channels slowed/stopped their uploading to YouTube.

Facebook is likely facing the same issuesthere is no good solution here. If you restrict ads, you lose the content-production machine. If you allow ads, you are selling to kids too much, so the easiest path is to forget about programming for kids. Leave that to PBS where content is planned and created with child development in mind. It's never going to be protectedthe way children need and still survive monetarily, he predicted.

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Facebook Will Be On The Hot SeatAgainAt Senate Hearing Thursday Because Of Instagram Kids App - Forbes