海角大神

Facebook, in the aftermath of damning testimony that its platforms harm children, will be introducing several features including prompting teens to take a break using its photo sharing app Instagram, and 鈥渘udging鈥� teens if they are repeatedly looking at the same content that鈥檚 not conducive to their well-being.

The Menlo Park, California-based Facebook is also planning to introduce new controls for adults of teens on an optional basis so that parents or guardians can supervise what their teens are doing online. These initiatives come after Facebook announced late last month that it was pausing work on its Instagram for Kids project. But critics say the plan lacks details and they are skeptical that the new features would be effective.

The new controls were outlined on Sunday by Nick Clegg, Facebook鈥檚 vice president for global affairs, who made the rounds on various Sunday news shows including CNN鈥檚 鈥淪tate of the Union鈥� and ABC鈥檚 鈥淭his Week with George Stephanopoulos鈥� where he was grilled about Facebook鈥檚 use of algorithms as well as its role in spreading harmful misinformation ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.

鈥淲e are constantly iterating in order to improve our products,鈥� Mr. Clegg told Dana Bash on 鈥淪tate of the Union鈥� Sunday. 鈥淲e cannot, with a wave of the wand, make everyone鈥檚 life perfect. What we can do is improve our products, so that our products are as safe and as enjoyable to use.鈥�

Mr. Clegg said that Facebook has invested $13 billion over the past few years in making sure to keep the platform safe and that the company has 40,000 people working on these issues. And while Mr. Clegg said that Facebook has done its best to keep harmful content out of its platforms, he says he was open for more regulation and oversight.

鈥淲e need greater transparency,鈥� he told CNN鈥檚 Ms. Bash. He noted that the systems that Facebook has in place should be held to account, if necessary, by regulation so that 鈥減eople can match what our systems say they鈥檙e supposed to do from what actually happens.鈥�

The flurry of interviews came after whistleblower Frances Haugen, a former data scientist with Facebook, went before Congress last week to accuse the social media platform of failing to make changes to Instagram after internal research showed apparent harm to some teens and of being dishonest in its public fight against hate and misinformation. Ms. Haugen鈥檚 accusations were supported by tens of thousands of pages of internal research documents she secretly copied before leaving her job in the company鈥檚 civic integrity unit.

Josh Golin, executive director of Fairplay, a watchdog for the children and media marketing industry, said that he doesn鈥檛 think introducing controls to help parents supervise teens would be effective since many teens set up secret accounts any way. He was also dubious about how effective nudging teens to take a break or move away from harmful content would be. He noted Facebook needs to show exactly how they would implement it and offer research that shows these tools are effective.

鈥淭here is tremendous reason to be skeptical,鈥� he said. He added that regulators need to restrict what Facebook does with its algorithms.

He said he also believes that Facebook should cancel its Instagram project for kids.

When Mr. Clegg was grilled by both Ms. Bash and Mr. Stephanopoulos in separate interviews about the use of algorithms in amplifying misinformation ahead of Jan. 6 riots, he responded that if Facebook removed the algorithms people would see more, not less hate speech, and more, not less, misinformation.

Mr. Clegg told both hosts that the algorithms serve as 鈥済iant spam filters.鈥�

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who chairs the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, told Ms. Bash in a separate interview Sunday that it鈥檚 time to update children鈥檚 privacy laws and offer more transparency in the use of algorithms.

鈥淚 appreciate that he is willing to talk about things, but I believe the time for conversation is done,鈥� said Ms. Klobuchar, referring to Mr. Clegg鈥檚 plan. 鈥淭he time for action is now.鈥�

This story was reported by The Associated Press.