Earlier this year, Facebook announced that a safer version of Instagram that is targeted at kids under the age of 13 is in development. Instagram has often been ranked among the most toxic social media platforms where instances of bullying and online abuse are often reported, and a lot of it has to do with young users coming in contact with adults with malicious intents. However, it appears that folks in the US justice department are not too happy with the move. A bipartisan coalition of 44 attorneys general, led by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, have written to Facebook and urged it to drop the ‘Instagram for Kids’ project.

Facebook has repeatedly failed to protect the health and wellbeing of children on its platforms. “Instagram for Kids” is a shameful attempt to exploit and profit off vulnerable people. I’m leading a letter to Mark Zuckerberg with 44 AGs to demand they abandon this plan.

— Maura Healey (@MassAGO) May 10, 2021

The letter also notes that instances of cyber-bullying are prevalent on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, and that predators often take advantage of anonymity to target children. In fact, it also cites another research claiming that 42% of the young Instagram users have suffered cyberbullying, which is higher than any other social media platform. The letter also mentions multiple instances of failure where Facebook’s claims of appropriate privacy and safety safeguards were proved wrong.

Facebook and Instagram are a hotbed of issues that affect physical and mental well-being of young users.

On a concluding note, the attorneys general note that Facebook is not actually catering to an existing demand for something like ‘Instagram for Kids’ but it is actually creating one. Facebook is beiung accused of creating a platform that is trying to lure children who otherwise would not create an Instagram account in the first place. To recall, Instagram doesn’t allow users below age 13 to sign up, but there is no fool-proof system in place to enforce that rule. Also, it isn’t the company’s first experience with such a product, as Facebook launched Messenger Kids with a similar premise a while ago. It now remains to be seen how Facebook responds to the appeal and whether it actually abandons the project.