Facebook and Instagram are making changes to ‘nudge’ teens away from harmful content – By Mark Serrels (CNET) / Oct 10 2021
The new mantra: “more friends, less politics”.
It’s been a tough couple of weeks for Facebook. A series of outages made headlines last week, with Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp going down for a significant period of time. But perhaps more importantly, the social media giant is facing increased scrutiny over the potentially harmful impact Facebook and Instagram are having on young children, particularly teenagers.
In response Nick Clegg, a former deputy prime minster of the UK turned Facebook vice president for global affairs and communications, said the social media company is planning to reduce the amount of political content on people’s feeds, focusing instead on content from friends on the service. The new matra: “more friends, less politics.”
It’s part of Facebook’s plan to “nudge” teenagers away from content that “may not be conducive to their well-being,” according to Clegg. “We’re going to introduce new controls for adults of teens on an optional basis, obviously, so adults can supervise what their teens are doing online,” Clegg said, in an interview on CNN
