Instagram chief testifies about teen-time-limit feature in Meta child-safety lawsuit
In an Oakland courtroom, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said the 2021 “Take a Break” feature saw low adoption among teens and was later made default, while state attorneys questioned Meta’s disclosures to users and parents.
Instagram’s head, Adam Mosseri, testified on Tuesday in a federal case brought by California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey alleging that Meta designed Instagram and Facebook to attract minors and concealed related risks. Mosseri acknowledged that the “Take a Break” pop-up, introduced in 2021 to prompt teens to pause after a set period of use, was used by only about 1.8 % of teenage users, far below the company’s expectations. He said the feature was made the default on all teen accounts in late 2024, rendering the earlier low-uptake data “entirely moot.”
State attorney Jason Slothouber highlighted that the default change occurred after the states filed suit in 2023 and cited a Mosseri blog post that claimed more than 90 % of users kept the feature enabled, without noting the low initial adoption rate. When asked if parents could have known the 1-2 % usage figure at the time, Mosseri confirmed, “Correct.” He also confirmed that Meta never disclosed that figure publicly.
Mosseri described “Take a Break” and “Quiet Mode” as part of a broader set of tools aimed at reducing problematic teen usage, noting that “there are no silver bullets to problems like this. We have to do many things that add up.” He defended Meta’s overall approach to teen safety and criticized the use of selective excerpts from larger documents in media coverage.
The trial follows a wave of litigation against technology firms over concerns about social-media impacts on youth mental health. Potential penalties for Meta have been estimated at up to $1.4 trillion. Mosseri, who has led Instagram since 2018, is scheduled to testify again, with the case expected to continue for several weeks.