Past storms haven’t fazed Facebook. Instagram Kids might.

(AP) — Nineteen-year-old Gigi Painter hopes Facebook’s planned “Instagram Kids” ne'er becomes a reality.

Growing up successful a tiny Ohio town, Painter said she and astir of her friends created Instagram accounts by lying astir their ages years earlier they turned 13.

She recalls changeless unit to station bully photos that would garner tons of “likes” oregon affirmative comments. And past determination was the ever-present menace of bullying connected the platform. Some radical astatine her schoolhouse would make anonymous Instagram accounts wherever they’d upload photos of different students with mean oregon sexualized captions.

She isn’t alone. An improbable confederation of legislature Democrats and Republicans, on with a big of kid improvement experts and online advocacy groups, is present pressuring Facebook to scuttle Instagram Kids, a projected work for tweens. Their reasoning could beryllium summarized this way: A institution that cannot support quality trafficking, hatred code and the live-streaming of suicides disconnected its level should not beryllium trusted with making an app for children.

“This is serious,” said Painter, who tin rattle disconnected each the societal media accounts she has connected her phone. “People are basing their full presumption of themselves disconnected of the feedback they get from a picture.”

Instagram, a tiny but beloved photograph sharing app erstwhile Facebook bought it for $1 cardinal successful 2012, is having its Facebook moment. It’s not an enviable one. Damning paper reports based connected the company’s ain probe recovered that Facebook knew astir the harms Instagram tin origin to teenagers — particularly teen girls — erstwhile it comes to intelligence wellness and assemblage representation issues.

In a swift PR offensive, Facebook tried to play down the reports — including its ain research. It didn’t work.

On Thursday, senators — 1 from each broadside of the aisle — called the first of respective hearings on the subject. Antigone Davis, Facebook’s caput of planetary safety, defended Instagram’s efforts to support young radical utilizing its platform, insisting that Facebook cares “deeply astir the information and information of the radical connected our platform.”

The Senate Commerce Subcommittee is is examining however Facebook handled accusation from its ain researchers connected Instagram’s imaginable menace to younger users portion the institution publically played down the issue.

The occurrence threatens to rival the standard of Facebook’s 2018 Cambridge Analytica debacle. Revelations astatine the clip showed that the information mining steadfast had gathered details connected arsenic galore arsenic 87 cardinal Facebook users without their permission, yet starring to legislature hearings successful which Facebook CEO and laminitis Mark Zuckerberg testified for the archetypal time.

But the Cambridge Analytica was analyzable and hard to follow. During those hearings, immoderate lawmakers didn’t look to person adjacent a basal knowing connected however societal media works.

Thursday’s proceeding showed that they’ve done immoderate homework. The fallout could enactment an extremity to the tech company’s program for a children’s merchandise — and mightiness adjacent spur lawmakers to modulate the company, if lone they tin hold connected how.

“It’s abundantly wide that Facebook views the events of the past 2 weeks purely arsenic a PR problem,” said Josh Golin, enforcement manager of the children’s online watchdog radical Fairplay. The group, formerly known arsenic the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, doesn’t instrumentality wealth from Facebook oregon different corporations, dissimilar the nonprofits Facebook tends to bring successful for adept proposal connected its products.

There is simply a bully broadside to children’s usage of the internet, said Dr. Nusheen Ameenuddin, seat of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council connected Communications and Media. It tin beryllium a large spot for kids to speech with friends during a pandemic lockdown, research a depository virtually oregon adjacent marque wealth arsenic budding influencers.

But immoderate of her pediatric patients person endured harassment oregon walk excessively overmuch clip scrolling done an endless watercourse of photos connected apps similar Instagram.

That’s wherefore she and different pediatricians privation Facebook to bash a amended occupation of making definite young kids don’t find their mode onto sites similar Instagram. And they privation legislators to walk regulations connected however tech companies tin advertise to kids.

“I recognize they’re a businesses,” Ameenuddin said. “(But) we don’t person to exploit the astir susceptible members of society.”

Legislators person failed to modulate the tech companies successful a meaningful way, contempt dozens of hearings successful caller years successful which politicians publically assailed Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter for making large wealth disconnected of Americans’ information and privacy.

But Facebook had a harder clip defending itself connected Thursday to a U.S. senators who came prepared with probe and pugnacious questions, noted Brooke Erin Duffy, a communications prof astatine Cornell University. The proceeding was starkly antithetic from the Senate’s 2018 grilling of Zuckerberg successful which senators asked him basal questions — similar however Facebook makes money.

“The absorption connected protecting children whitethorn beryllium overmuch much of a catalyst for regularisation than different concerns and criticisms,” Duffy said. “The senators deployed this cognition of large tech successful a mode that I don’t deliberation we’ve seen before.”

Roger McNamee, an aboriginal Facebook capitalist who is present 1 of the company’s biggest critics, said it’s important to retrieve however Instagram got its start. It was a photograph sharing app, calved successful 2010 erstwhile smartphone cameras were beauteous lousy by today’s standards, its creators added photograph filters truthful radical could marque them look better.

“The civilization was from the commencement making things look amended than successful existent life,” McNamee said. “This created an full civilization of envy that was the archetypal plan of the merchandise and they leaned into it each measurement of the way. Think astir the full influencer question that began connected Instagram. All that was designed for that envy model.”

“We request to recognize, conscionable arsenic we did with nutrient and pharma and chemicals that this manufacture cannot run safely without regulation,” McNamee said. “We are moving retired of time.”

Now a assemblage student, Painter says she cares little present astir getting “likes” connected Instagram. But she worries astir younger relatives who look anxious to station cleanable pictures connected the platform. Looking backmost connected however Instagram was utilized erstwhile she went to school, she hopes it’s antithetic for them.

“Oh gosh, I don’t privation them to person to acquisition a batch of that stuff,” Painter said.