Instagram admits Meta hid teen safety tool data

Adam Mosseri, Instagram's head at Meta, testified in a California court on Tuesday that he had promoted new teen safety tools without revealing their low usage rates from earlier tests. Meta, with over three billion users globally, is facing accusations from 29 U.S. states that it intentionally designed its products to attract young users and collect their data while misleading the public. The trial, expected to continue through late September, is now in its second week.

During the trial, a lawyer from the Colorado Attorney General's office questioned Mosseri about the low usage of the tools, named Take a Break and Quiet Mode, launched in 2021 and 2023, respectively. While Mosseri claimed that usage rates have significantly improved, witnesses testified that the tools were not effective. Mosseri admitted that the company did not disclose the low adoption rates, which were only around 1-2 percent of accounts.

However, he said that safety features were later turned on by default in Teen Accounts, introduced in 2024.

Other witnesses testified that the adoption rates for these features were disappointingly low. Internal Meta documents showed that Take a Break reached an adoption rate of only 1.8 percent, while Quiet Mode reached 8.7 percent. Mosseri was unaware of these numbers but acknowledged that the company knew adoption rates would be lower if tools were not turned on by default.

The trial's outcome could result in around $200 billion in penalties for Meta, potentially forcing significant changes to its business model and causing shockwaves throughout the industry.