Facebook has kept the internal investigation a secret for two years, suggesting its Instagram app is worsening body image problems for teenage girls, according to a leak from the tech firm.
At least since 2019, company staff have studied the impact of their product on the moods of younger users. Her research has repeatedly found that it is harmful to a large proportion, and particularly to adolescent girls.
“They worsen body image problems for one in three teens,” said a slide from an internal presentation in 2019, seen by the Wall Street Journal. “Thirty-two percent of teenage girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse,” a post-March 2020 presentation reported.
Another slide said, “Teens blame Instagram for increasing the rate of anxiety and depression. This reaction was unpredictable and consistent across groups. “
Composed of focus group findings, online surveys, and newspaper studies in 2019 and 2020, Instagram research demonstrates for the first time the company’s awareness of the impact of its product on teen mental health. And yet, in public, executives on Facebook, which has owned Instagram since 2012, have consistently downplayed its negative impact on teens.
As recently as March, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, claimed that social media had more positive effects on mental health. In May, Adam Mosseri, who heads Instagram, said he had seen research suggesting that its effects on teen mental health were probably “quite small.”
In a “deep immersion in mental health,” product marketing and design executives and Facebook data scientists concluded that some of the issues, such as “social comparison,” were specific to Instagram and were not replicated by other platforms. .
“The aspects of Instagram are exacerbated by each other to create a perfect storm,” said an internal report, which said pressure to share only the best moments and to look perfect could lead to depression, low self-esteem and eating disorders in people. teenagers.
Among the most troubling findings was that among users who reported suicidal thoughts, 13% in the UK and 6% in the US traced them to Instagram. Another transatlantic study found that more than 40% of Instagram users who reported not feeling “attractive” said the feeling started in the app; about a quarter of teens who reported not feeling good enough said it started on Instagram.
Facebook’s internal findings echo several studies involving social media in an epidemic of mental health problems among young people. In 2017, YoungMinds and the Royal Society for Public Health published research that highlighted Instagram as the most negative impact on the mental well-being of young people on all social networks. Emma Thomas, chief executive of the charity, said that while social media could be beneficial, it also came under increased pressure.
“Being surrounded by constant images of ‘perfect’ life and seemingly perfect bodies can also have a big impact on how you feel about your own life and appearance, and it can be very difficult not to compare yourself to others.” said Thomas.
A spokesman for the 5Rights Foundation, which is campaigning to make changes to digital services to make them more suitable for children and young people, said: “Facebook’s own investigation is a devastating accusation of the negligence it deals with, and in general, the technology sector to children.
“For profit, these companies steal children’s time, self-esteem and mental health, and sometimes tragically their lives … This is a completely human world, largely privately owned, designed to optimize it “It’s about optimizing the safety, rights and well-being of children first, and then, only then, the benefits.”
Facebook declined to comment, but sent The Guardian a link to a blog post from Instagram’s head of public policy, Karina Newton. He said the WSJ’s history had “focused on a limited set of findings and left them in the negative.”
“There are issues like negative social comparison and anxiety in the world, so they will also exist on social media,” Newton said. “That doesn’t change the fact that we take these findings seriously and make a specific effort to respond to this research and change Instagram for the better.”