Ammon News - Instagram’s controversial new “Map” feature carries “significant public safety and data privacy concerns” that could endanger kids, a bipartisan group of 37 state attorneys general warned in a letter.

Instagram Map, launched Aug. 6 with little advance notice, enables users to share their exact location with others on the app. The feature has drawn concerns it could place children and others at risk – especially given Mark Zuckerberg’s poor track record on protecting user privacy.

In a Wednesday letter to Instagram chief Adam Mosseri, New Mexico AG Raúl Torrez and others demanded that Meta take several “urgent” steps to promote safety, including disabling the Map feature entirely for underage users and sending a “clear alert” on potential safety risks and how Instagram planned to use the location data.

“Unrestricted location-sharing features pose a particular risk for minors as they can be readily

used by sexual predators to identify and geographically target children in the real world,” the letter warned.

“We know that dangerous individuals are already present on Instagram, and we have serious concerns

that this feature will increase the likelihood of hands-on abuse and exploitation.” NYP