Meta Platform
’s
FB
head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, recently
stated
that the company is introducing Family Center for parents. This new place will give parents access to supervision tools and resources from leading industry experts.
Family Center will help parents to control what their teenage children experience across Meta technologies, especially in social media and VR technology. It will provide them with an educational hub that will provide parents access to expert opinions regarding how to introduce social media to children and instructions concerning how to use parental control.
Per a recent article from
Reuters
, the latest initiative by Meta to control and protect children’s privacy comes following an uproar caused by a whistle-blower leaking internal documents. The document stated that the company knew that certain teenage girls were having issues on Instagram regarding posting pictures, particularly body images.
Supervision tools have been available on Instagram since Mar 16 and will begin rolling out in VR in May.
Meta’s User Growth Hampered by Children Safety Issues
Instagram’s growing popularity in international markets, particularly in Asia, has helped Meta expand its user base. Much of it can be attributed to the introduction of Instagram Video — a combination of IGTV and feed videos. This new feature introduced in the last reported quarter has been attracting Gen-Z to the platform amid competition.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, Monthly active users (MAUs) were 2.912 billion, up 4.1% year over year.
MAUs in Asia-Pacific, RoW, Europe, and the United States & Canada grew 6.6%, 2.6%, 1.9% and 1.6% to 1.28 billion, 945 million, 427 million and 262 million, respectively.
However, the recent accusations that put children’s safety in danger proved to be a major setback. This incident led Mosseri to testify before Congress, where he was questioned regarding children’s safety online.
Failure to comply with requirements to protect teenage users will result in Meta losing not only users but also ESG compliant investors who are wary of the company’s recent issues regarding children protection issues.
A similar issue recently arose for Meta’s social media peer
Snap
SNAP
. Snap’s Snapchat platform announced new parental controls for its platform in January this year to limit friend suggestions for teen users and protect them from unwanted attention.
Snapchat’s recent initiatives come following allegations that the company has been failing to prevent drug-related content from proliferating its chatting platforms, specifically among its users aged below 18.
Snapchat has been the most preferred social network among Gen Z compared with its rival Meta’s Facebook or Instagram and
Twitter
TWTR
.
However, Twitter’s unique platform, even though it is different from Instagram, has been gaining momentum among users of all age groups due to its openness, real-time content, conversational format, and simplicity. It has been able to protect the security of users in its platform and thus boost trustworthiness.
Meta Facing Stiff Competition in Virtual Reality Segment
Meta’s interest in the Metaverse is already well known. In fact, the company’s primary focus has shifted from social media to create an alternate reality where users can escape.
Oculus is the result of the company’s ambitious augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) efforts. AR/VR technology is rapidly emerging as a lucrative business opportunity, and Meta is looking to capitalize on this massive opportunity with its Oculus Quest Virtual reality headset.
In order to make this product safe for Gen-Z, particularly for teens 13+, parental controls will be issued, and children will be blocked from downloading apps deemed inappropriate by
International Age Rating Coalition
.
Meta’s rival
Apple
AAPL
is not interested in the idea of a completely virtual world, as put forward by Meta. Apple, on the contrary, is more interested in AR, where users will lay digital objects onto the real world rather than virtual-reality tools that create an entirely new world.
The iPhone-maker is rumored to launch its first AR headset in the second half of 2022. AR glasses from Apple, once available, will intensify competition for the likes of Meta in the AR/VR space.
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