Fairplay For Kids, an organization that advocates for internet safety for children and families, announced the massive action it spearheaded against "Instagram for Kids" in time for Safer Internet Day, which is celebrated every February 8.
"This #SaferInternetDay, the pressure on Facebook keeps growing. Today, Fairplay led a coalition of over 75 faith leaders from a wide array of denominations in calling on Meta to abandon its plans for Instagram for Kids," Fairplay For Kids tweeted on Monday.
WION elaborated that the 75 church leaders included pastors, reverends, rabbis, and other religious leaders. The coalition also includes Fairplay's Children's Screen Time Action Network.
While Premier Christian News reported that the coalition sent a letter addressed to Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg urging the permanent stop on the roll-out of Instagram for Kids. Instagram announced that a kid version of their app would be released last year but stopped their plans come September due to an increase in opposition from parents and concerned groups.
In the letter, the coalition highlighted the evils the app will inflict on children should Meta continue with its plans. The faith leaders also referenced the Bible, Pope Francis, the Qur'an, and Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh in the letter to stress to Zuckerberg the need to consider the spiritual and secular aspects of their plans for Instagram for Kids. Zuckerberg has been reported in the past to regard religion as "very important."
"After much meditation and prayer, we assert that social media platforms that target immature brains, practice unethical data mining, and are inspired by profit motives are not a tool for the greater good of children," the coalition said in the letter.
"The app will serve as a catalytic gateway for young children to the already-documented problems adversely impacting teens, as well as a vast array of unforeseen issues as commercial culture further encroaches on the sanctity of childhood," they stressed.
Meta, on the other hand, reportedly declined to comment on the coalition's letter.
The coalition's action come almost three months after Fairplay and more than 20 private organizations, which include those that safeguard child safety and consumer protection, wrote Zuckerberg for stating "misleading statements" in the Senate on surveillance advertising.
Facebook, whose name has been changed to Meta Platforms months after, announced in July that advertisers have been limited in targeting ads for people under 18 to "age, gender, and location." These were the same statements given by Facebook Global Head of Safety Antigone Davis before the United States Senate during the investigation launched against them.
However, an investigation conducted by Fairplay afterwards reveal that Meta themselves were conducting the surveillance on kids through Artificial Intelligence. In a letter dated November 21 addressed to Zuckerberg, Fairplay and the private organizations highlight "recent revelations" that "suggest advertising is being 'optimized' for teens within Facebook, and children's accounts still receive targeted surveillance advertising."
"New research found that Facebook is using data about children's online behavior to feed their machine learning enabled 'Delivery System' to optimize targeting in children's feeds," the November 21 letter said.
Forbes reported that the string of controversy faced by Meta and its various platforms have resulted to a "declining growth for the first time." Meta recently experienced a $230 billion one-day drop.
Ironically, the reported unethical actions of Meta in data mining and surveillance advertising were due to its strong thirst for money at the expense of its users, especially children. Young adults and children were reported to suffer mental conditions, abuse, and trafficking due to Facebook. These negative effects on the youth's usage of Facebook were seen to only worsen should Instagram persist with its plans to release Instagram for Kids.
