Ammon News - Instagram and mental health concerns have long been talked about, especially when it comes to teens and young adults. The trend of staying online for hours and constantly being on the phone has swelled the mental health issues among children across the globe. According to research, published by Paw Research Center, 8 per cent of teens say that they use Instagram 'almost constantly' in 2023. There is a lot of evidence that shows that excessive screen-time is harmful, but whether Instagram alone can be held responsible is a question. To answer such questions, Meta has finally opened up Instagram's data for a handful of researchers to get a deeper insight into the matter in hand.

In collaboration with the Center for Open Science (COS), the pilot program aims to shed light on the relationship between social media usage and the mental wellbeing of teenagers. This program can result in several independent studies. But does it mean that Instagram is breaching privacy rules? During this program, the researchers will gain access to the data for only 6 months. This data may include how many accounts a teen follows, the duration of Instagram usage, their account settings and more. But it is noteworthy that Meta will not provide access to a user's demographic information, nor will it include the contents of their posts, comments or messages.

As reported by The Atlantic, COS will choose up to 7 research proposals in different areas of mental health. This will be free of the interference of Meta.

Scientists must also enlist teenagers to participate in the study and obtain consent from their parents. According to COS, analysing data directly from Instagram, in conjunction with other research methods like surveys and studies, can provide a more comprehensive understanding of teen wellbeing and offer valuable insights that might not be possible through a single approach.

Curtiss Cobb, Meta's president of research, stated in the report, "Parents, policymakers, academics and technology companies are grappling with how best to support young people as they navigate online spaces, but we need more data to understand the full picture."

Instagram's effect on the mental health of teens has been in the spotlight. In 2021, a whistleblower, Frances Haugen exposed a cache of confidential documents, including internal studies. She revealed that teenagers attributed their rising anxiety and depression to Instagram. This prompted scientists to urge Meta to share its mental health research more openly, sparking a push for greater transparency and collaboration.