Instagram's 'Take a Break' Feature Saw Low Teen Adoption, Internal Documents Reveal During Meta Trial
During a social media addiction trial in Oakland, Instagram head Adam Mosseri testified that the platform's 'Take a Break' feature, designed to encourage users to step away from the app, initially saw modest adoption among teenagers. An internal Meta document from 2021, presented during the testimony, indicated that only 1.8% of teens had activated the feature. This contrasts with Instagram's public blog post in December 2021, which highlighted that over 90% of teens who turned on 'Take a Break' kept it on, without disclosing the low initial activation rate. Mosseri explained that the company had to make significant changes over the years to increase adoption, including implementing notifications to encourage activation and eventually making it a default setting for teen accounts. The trial involves a coalition of attorneys general, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who accuse Meta of designing its platforms to exploit young users for profit and contributing to a national mental health crisis a... 
