Meta Platforms


FB

recently rolled out a new feature called Amber Alerts on Instagram for the first time, which will help people in finding missing children.

The company has developed this feature in association with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the United States, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, the National Crime Agency in the U.K., the Attorney General’s Office in Mexico, the Australian Federal Police and other government authorities worldwide.

Instagram is primarily a photo-sharing platform, which makes it an ideal networking medium for the Amber Alert Program, as photos are critical in the search for missing children, especially in the first few hours of the lookout. With this new feature, law enforcement agencies can activate the Amber Alert in case a child goes missing, which will alert all the Instagram users in that area regarding the same.

Amber Alert has been rolled out on Instagram from Jun 1 in 25 countries such as Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Ecuador, Greece, and the United States, to name a few. The company is working on expanding its services globally.

This new strategic decision to bring Amber Alerts to Instagram has come after Meta faced flak regarding child protection issues on the social media platform. This new feature will attract ESG compliant investors to the platform and have a potential positive influence on parents and children by making them aware of Instagram’s child protection services. This will lure more users to the platform.

Instagram Facing Risk of Hampered User Growth

Instagram’s growing popularity in international markets, particularly in Asia, has helped Meta expand its user base. Instagram is particularly popular among Gen-Z.

In order to protect the Gen Z online, Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram,

stated

back in March that the company is introducing Family Center for parents. This new place will provide parents access to supervision tools and resources from leading industry experts.

However, per an 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.

The accusations that put children’s safety in danger proved to be a major setback. This incident led Mosseri to testify before the United States 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 child protection issues.

A similar children’s safety 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 on 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 on its platform and thus bolstered trustworthiness.

Zacks Rank And a Stock to Consider

Meta Platforms currently carries a Zacks Rank# 3 (Hold).

In the year-to-date period, Meta’s shares have fallen 43.9% compared with the Zacks

Computer and Technology

sector’s decline of 24.5%.

Analog Devices


ADI

, currently sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) is a better-ranked stock in the broader sector. You can see


the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here


.

ADI’s shares have fallen 5.4% in the year-to-date period compared with the Zacks

Semiconductor – Analog and Mixed

industry’s decline of 14.6%.

Zacks Names “Single Best Pick to Double”

From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each have chosen their favorite to skyrocket +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all.

It’s a little-known chemical company that’s up 65% over last year, yet still dirt cheap. With unrelenting demand, soaring 2022 earnings estimates, and $1.5 billion for repurchasing shares, retail investors could jump in at any time.

This company could rival or surpass other recent Zacks’ Stocks Set to Double like Boston Beer Company which shot up +143.0% in little more than 9 months and NVIDIA which boomed +175.9% in one year.

Free: See Our Top Stock and 4 Runners Up >>

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.

Click to get this free report

To read this article on Zacks.com click here.