Facebook's Profit Model Perceives Kids As 'Untapped Wealth', Says Report
Poor Facebook can't seem to catch a break. In the latest piece of Wall Street Journal's "The Facebook Files", it was revealed that Facebook and its baby companies perceive kids and teens as "untapped wealth".
Two weeks ago, WSJ got its hands on internal documents from Facebook where the company directly acknowledged how much harm it was causing to teenagers, especially girls. In the leak, Facebook's Instagram was in the spotlight with body image issues and self-harm at the centre.
Damning evidence of kids' commodification?
Now, more internal documents highlight how Facebook's heavy words about protecting children on its group of platforms may truly be hollow. In fact, it appears that the company goes an extra mile to recruit children onto its platforms including Instagram and Facebook.
Facebook not only views children and teens as "untapped wealth", but also set-up a special team to study how to monetise kids on its platforms. "Tweens" (kids aged below 10) were referred to as "valuable but untapped audience".
Also read:?Instagram Kids Version Put On Hold, After Public Outcry Against Facebook
Did you have any doubts about profit being the single primary driver of companies like Facebook? Let's clear that up for you. Leaked internal documents show Facebook wants to "leverage" screen time with kids to push Facebook's "growth".
Sadly for Facebook, teens aren't impressed by the platform. Documents dated March 2021 were cited by WSJ as claiming that Facebook is unable to penetrate global teen populations, while adding that "acquisition" of teenage users has slowed down. In fact, the company thinks its teenage users are expected to go down 45 per cent by 2023.
Also read:?Instagram Ruins Teenage Girls' Self-Image, And Facebook Knows About It
Why profits matter so much
While Instagram emerged as a vanilla photo sharing platform, over the years it has morphed into a combination of features borrowed from Snapchat, TikTok and even Facebook.
Facebook and its companies run on a highly profitable ad-driven model of social media where personal data about users including their interests, preferences and general tastes in life are used to deliver tailored advertisements to them.
Also read:?Facebook Is Hiding 'Real' News Feed Content From Safety Observers, Says Report
The company urges minor users to grant these permissions as soon as they turn 18. Just last week, Facebook announced that it was no longer pursuing "Instagram Kids" at the moment. To make matters worse, Facebook doesn't want to share its news feed data with regulators and watchdogs and has made certain changes to its home feed code to prevent companies from accessing data. Facebook maintains that this was done to help visually challenged users.
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