Instagram to introduce ‘take a break’ feature, nudge teens away from harmful content

Washington  : Instagram will introduce new measures to nudge teenagers away from harmful content and encourage them to “take a break” from the platform.

As per The Verge, Facebook vice president of global affairs Nick Clegg shared, “We’re going to introduce something which I think will make a considerable difference, which is where our systems see that a teenager is looking at the same content over and over again, and it’s content which may not be conducive to their well being, we will nudge them to look at other content.”

He added that in addition to pausing plans for an Instagram Kids platform and giving parents optional controls to supervise teens, the company planned to introduce a feature “called ‘take a break’, where we will be prompting teens to just simply take a break from using Instagram.”

Clegg didn’t provide a timeline for either feature. In response to an email from The Verge seeking further details, a Facebook spokesperson said the features are “not testing yet but will soon.”

The spokesperson pointed to a September 27 blog post by Instagram head Adam Mosseri which mentioned the company was “exploring” the features: “We announced last week that we’re exploring two new ideas: encouraging people to look at other topics if they’re dwelling on content that might contribute to negative social comparison, and a feature tentatively called “Take a Break,” where people could put their account on pause and take a moment to consider whether the time they’re spending is meaningful”.