Louisiana AG Says New Kid’s Instagram is a Terrible Idea

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Having kids in the age of social media is tricky.  I love taking pictures of my kids, but I'm also wary of posting too much because of how accessible I am making them to the general public.  Now, factor in that one of my kids is now talking about getting his own social media accounts.  That's just one of the reasons why I buy antacids by the truckload.

Before we get too far into this, just know this: My 12-year old isn't getting his own Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram just yet.  He's still got a few years to go by the rules that my wife and I have set for him.  Currently, Instagram's rules state pretty much the same thing - that no one under the age of 13 can have an account.  According to Buzzfeed, however, that may be changing soon.

According to rumors substantiated by leaked internal documents from Instagram, the picture-fueled social media platform seems to be developing a version for kids under 13 years of age.  Of course, this falls in line with Instagram's parent company Facebook's mode of operation - they released their "Messenger for Kids" back in 2017.  That app famously included a glitch that allowed kids to chat with complete strangers.  Facebook responded by claiming that the incident only affected a small number of users.

Louisiana's Attorney General, Jeff Landry, thinks this is a terrible idea.  He joined with a growing number of law enforcement leaders from across the country to urge Facebook to stop developing this app and others like it in order to protect kids from child predators, bullies, online harassment and the like.  Together with 44 other AGs from one end of this country to the other, Landry helped craft a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg asking him and his company to stop trying to expand the current pool of account-holders by exploiting kids under 13.

You can read that letter here.