Internal document reveals Instagram’s strategy to target ‘tweens’

An internal Meta document from 2018, revealed in a lawsuit, suggests the company viewed children as a market to be captured rather than a vulnerable group needing protection. The document states, "If we wanna win big with teens, we must bring them in as tweens." Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified that he did not recall the context of this specific email.

Meta claims Instagram prohibits users under 13 from creating accounts. However, the platform is rife with videos of children identifying as younger than 13 while using social media. A popular trend involves children aged 7-8 uploading videos about themselves, including their age.

“

If we wanna win big with teens, we must bring them in as tweens.

Social media companies' age verification processes are widely considered ineffective. Users can easily bypass restrictions by lying about their age or using temporary verification methods. This has led to suspicions that companies intentionally overlook these loopholes to attract younger users, as indicated by the internal Meta document.

Globally, governments are implementing regulations to combat social media addiction in children and teens. These measures include age verification laws and disabling addictive features for younger users. For instance, France plans to require cryptographic age verification using IDs, while California mandates operating system providers to collect user age information during device setup. These efforts signal a global trend toward holding companies accountable for verifying user ages.

“

My name, my age, my favorite color