Instagram chief admits touting teen safety tool while omitting it was barely used

Adam Mosseri, Instagram's chief at Meta, admitted in a California court on Tuesday that he promoted newly launched teen safety tools without clarifying their minimal adoption rates from earlier testing. With over three billion global users, Meta faces accusations from a coalition of 29 US states that it designed its products to entice children and collect their data while misleading the public.

The trial, entering its second week, is expected to continue until late September. Lawyers questioned Mosseri about the low usage of the tools, known as Take a Break and Quiet Mode, launched in 2021 and 2023. Although Mosseri claimed that adoption has significantly improved, it was revealed that these tools had only reached 1 or 2 percent of accounts.

Mosseri admitted the company did not disclose this but claimed the features were later set to default in Teen Accounts with parental controls, introduced in 2024. However, he could not recall whether Meta ever disclosed the percentage of teen accounts with parental controls enabled. The trial's outcome could result in a penalty of around $200 billion for Meta, potentially leading to significant changes in its business model and causing industry-wide shockwaves.