Activists join call for Facebook to drop 'tone-deaf' Instagram for kids plan

More than 150,000 activists and parents have signed a series of petitions urging Facebook to drop its plans to create an Instagram for kids platform, the organizations behind the petitions said Tuesday. The signatories join a growing chorus of advocates and bipartisan lawmakers who have criticized Facebook’s plans, which would create an Instagram platform for children under 13. The three petitions, launched by Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), SumOfUs, and the Juggernaut Project, slam the plan over concerns about skewing children’s self image, harvesting their data, and feeding the addictive nature of social media apps. Josh Golin, executive director of CCFC, accused Facebook’s plan for the new platform of using children as “pawns in its war with TikTok for market share.” “Teens and even adults on Instagram struggle with the never-ending focus on appearance, the relentless fear of missing out, promotion of influencer culture, and the pressure to collect likes. Instagram for young children is among the greediest, most tone-deaf and wrong-headed ideas ever to emerge from Silicon Valley,” Golin said in a statement. Kristin Bride, the mother of a 16-year-old who died by suicide in June, is among those who signed the petitions. Her son, Carson Bride, received 62 anonymous messages “meant to humiliate…
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