Adam Mosseri, the Meta executive at the helm of Instagram, defended the platform’s safety record in testimony Tuesday and took issue with a plaintiff attorney’s emphasis on low usage numbers for a feature designed to encourage young users to take breaks.
Mosseri was appearing at a trial that pits Meta against the states of California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, which accuse the social media giant of contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly and deliberately designing features that addict children to its platforms.
Jason Slothouber, a senior prosecutor for the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, pressed Mosseri on the low adoption rate among teens for the “take a break” feature, which prompts users to step away if they’ve been scrolling a while. Very few teens used the feature when Instagram first introduced it, but since launching separate teen accounts in 2024, Meta has made it the default setting for teenage users.
Mosseri appeared frustrated that Slothouber was focusing on a single Instagram safety feature when the Meta executive said, “There are many features we launch over many aspects of safety and well-being” that the company tries to improve over time.
