Instagram head acknowledges low teen safety tool usage as Meta faces multi-state trial

Testimony over teen protection tools

Instagram head Adam Mosseri testified on Tuesday in federal court in Oakland, California, marking the first appearance by a senior Meta executive in the ongoing trial. Prosecutors confronted Mosseri with a blog post from 7 December 2021, published on the eve of a US Senate hearing concerning teen mental health. In the post, Mosseri wrote that more than 90% of teenagers kept the "Take a Break" reminder active once they turned it on. Under questioning from prosecutor Jason Slothouber, Mosseri acknowledged that Meta knew actual activation was low, ranging between 1% and 2% among teenage users, and conceded that parents had no way of knowing those figures.

There are thousands of statistics like that, we do not publish all of them.

Internal data and engineer warnings

Former Instagram data analyst George Volichenko testified on Tuesday regarding internal evaluations of teen safety features. Volichenko spent nearly a year on Instagram's well-being team, where internal monitoring revealed that only 0.2% of teenagers actively used the break reminder. When Volichenko raised concerns, his supervisor instructed him not to worry about low adoption, explaining that the team existed partly to shield the company from future legal claims. Volichenko left Meta in 2023 after internal proposals to enable break reminders and evening "quiet mode" by default were turned down.

I started to doubt that the objective presented to me was genuine.

An internal 2023 Meta review presented in court revealed that the company restricted notifications promoting safety tools to prevent drops in screen time and advertising revenue. According to that assessment, only one-third of minors knew the break tool existed, while parental supervision features had an adoption rate below 1%. Mosseri stated during his testimony that Meta eventually resolved the issue by enabling break reminders by default in 2024. Instagram design director Francesco Fogu was also called to answer questions regarding product decisions.

Scope of the multi-state lawsuit

The trial, which opened in mid-August and is scheduled to run through late September, stems from a lawsuit brought by four lead attorneys general representing California, Colorado, New Jersey, and Kentucky on behalf of 29 states. The coalition claims that Meta deceived parents by presenting Facebook and Instagram as safe and non-addictive for minors, while also violating federal statutes protecting the data of children under 13. The states seek up to $200 billion in financial penalties alongside court-ordered structural overhauls of platforms that serve 3.6 billion daily users. Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify at an unscheduled date before the eight-member jury, which will deliver an advisory verdict to US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.

Settlement discussions and scheduled announcements

Negotiations between Meta and state officials over a potential out-of-court settlement emerged on Tuesday evening following the courtroom proceedings. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser scheduled a press briefing for Wednesday morning at 9:30 AM local time to announce developments in a case against a large technology firm. Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, who filed a separate lawsuit against Meta with trial set for 2028, called a press briefing 30 minutes later regarding a consumer protection settlement. Meta and the lead state attorneys general did not provide immediate comments regarding the reported discussions.