Instagram is now telling young users to take a break from the photo-sharing platform.
The social media app on Tuesday rolled out the new feature ahead of the CEO testifying in front of Congress on Wednesday.
This all comes after former Facebook product manager France Haugen testified to U.S. and European lawmakers, citing internal company research suggesting that peer pressure generated by Instagram has led to mental health and body-image problems in young users, especially girls, and in some cases, eating disorders and suicidal thoughts.
The previously announced “Take A Break” feature encourages teens to stop scrolling if they have been on the social media platform for a while, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a blog post. It rolled out to the U.S., United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and Australia on Tuesday and would reach the rest of the world early next year, he said.
Young users will see notifications about the feature and be urged to set reminders to take more breaks going forward, the post said.
Here’s how to set up the feature: Go under your settings tab on Instagram, click “Your Activity” and there you will see the new button that says set reminders to take breaks. You have the options of 30, 20 or 10 minutes, or completely off.
“Now, in concept, it’s a good option to encourage people to take breaks,” said David Monahan, the campaign manager for Fairplay, a nonprofit organization that advocates about the impacts of marketing on young people. “When the whole business model is about maximizing engagement, it’s really kind of window dressing to say, ‘Oh, we’ve instituted this new ‘Take A Break’ feature that if you’re on for a little too long, we’ll suggest taking a break.’”
Social media is a family affair in the Vinicky household, and while mother Blakeley Vinicky says she’s happy these conversations have started, “it’s just kind of amazing how much things have kind of progressed unless people wake up and realize that’s not realty or how we should try to live up to.”
Vinicky says her 5-year-old daughter asked if she could have her own Instagram, so these are conversations she realizes she’ll have to have with her own daughter unless more changes are made.