After a long history of accusations over Instagram's impact on teens-and denials by the same from Meta, the company is now looking to allow researchers an in-depth look at the impacts of the platform on young users part of a new expansion of its research program.

According to The Atlantic, Meta plans "a small pilot program," which will enable researchers to tap into IG usage data to study the impact app use has on teens.

As The Atlantic reports:

The company says today it is soliciting proposals that zero in on specific research questions - is social media use linked to different kinds of effects in different parts of the world, for instance - and that it plans to take up to seven such submissions. Once submissions are approved, researchers will be able to tap into relevant data from study participants- how many accounts they follow, say, or how much they use Instagram and when.

The report said Meta would still retain some data locked down, such as information about user demographics and specific post info. The point is that conceptually it's now on its way to making it more transparent about the use of IG and will either confirm or dispel the concept of Instagram being bad for teens.

This comes three years after The Wall Street Journal published a blockbuster report which, based on leaked documents from Meta, suggested that the company's internal research had indicated that Instagram was harming teen girls specifically but chose to ignore such findings in favor of driving more usage. That report eventually saw Meta called before Congress to answer for its efforts.

In response, Meta denied WSJ's findings and the validity of the report's findings, explaining instead that it was only a research project on a small scale, designed to help guide product decisions. It is not, Meta claimed, indicative of broad-scale impacts.
But many other studies have also found the same, that Instagram can have negative impacts on teens, with negative comparison and bullying among chief concerns identified by mental health professionals.

Hopefully, then, these new research projects will dig deeper and reveal more truth, which Meta can then use to improve its policies in ways that help further protect teenagers. It is constantly adding more tools to do so, and with more information to go on, it ideally stands to be even better equipped with the right options to prevent harm to young users.

The Center for Open Science will operate the Instagram study, ensuring that the results are published without Meta playing an intermediary role in it.

Meta locked its data tight after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Hopefully, that is its first step in a new direction.