Report renews calls for research on social media’s impact on kids

'Thirty-two percent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse,' noted an internal presentation from 2020 that the newspaper obtained. —Relaxnews

WASHINGTON: Child safety advocates say an explosive report that Facebook failed to disclose data showing its products negatively affect the mental health of teenagers should be the final straw for lawmakers worried about social media’s impact on young users.

Democrats and Republicans zeroed in on child safety as a bipartisan area of concern this year, even before a Wall Street Journal article published last week detailed internal research showing that teens — especially girls — blamed Instagram, a Facebook subsidiary, for anxiety and depression.