Instagram head Adam Mosseri, at children's addiction trial, says few teenagers knew of safety feature

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SynopsisAdam Mosseri, the head of Instagram since 2018, denied any suggestion by U.S. states ​suing Meta that Instagram stalled by not making the "Take a Break" feature the default setting for teenagers until September 2024, nearly three years after its launch.

ReutersLawyer Mark Lanier walks outside the court where Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, is set to testify during a trial in a key test case accusing Meta and Google's YouTube of harming children's mental health through addictive platforms, in Los Angeles, California, U.S. February 11, 2026. REUTERS/Daniel ColeThe top executive at Instagram said few teenagers used a key safety feature to limit their use before ​it was turned on by default, at a trial over whether ​Meta Platforms designed Instagram and Facebook to addict children.

Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram since 2018, denied any suggestion by US states ​suing Meta that Instagram stalled by not making the "Take a Break" feature the default setting for teenagers until September 2024, nearly three years after its launch.

Under questioning from Jason Slothouber, an attorney for Colorado, Mosseri acknowledged that the percentage of teenagers using Take a Break was in the low-single digits before Instagram made it the default.

Mosseri estimated in a December 2021 blog post when Take a Break was launched ‌that in early tests ⁠more than ⁠90% of teenage users who turned the feature on kept it on. The feature encourages users to close Instagram after set periods of time.

"Most teens didn't want it," Mosseri said in the fourth day of a trial in ​Oakland, California, federal court. "We decided to push forward with it anyway."

Mosseri is a central witness in the lawsuit by 29 US states, in what experts call the biggest legal test yet of ​social media's effects on young users.

Four of the states - California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey - have accused Meta of designing the platforms to hook young users, fueling anxiety, depression and even suicide, while misleading consumers about their safety.

All 29 states say Meta violated federal law by improperly collecting and using personal data of children under ​13 while they used its platforms.

The states have indicated they could seek nearly $200 billion in civil penalties.

Meta has rejected ⁠accusations it ‌sought to addict children, and said its research showed no clear link between adolescents' social media use and a lack of well-being.

Under questioning ​by Slothouber, Mosseri rejected the idea that he knew of an alleged Meta policy for lawyers to review internal presentations to scrub information ⁠from them, or shield him from problems.

Mosseri said it was important that any information Instagram had about ​children's safety that became public be high-quality, and backed by experts.

"I am not trying to encourage my team to hide anything," ​Mosseri said. "I want to understand how things work. I can't think of any time that I've encouraged people to bring less information to me."

Mosseri also said Instagram centralized people working on sensitive research about teenagers to a single team and reduced access to the information across the company following the 2021 leak of the so-called Facebook Files.

That leak came from whistleblower Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager who said Meta knew its products were unsafe for children but did nothing in order to pursue higher profit.

The trial is expected to resume with more testimony from Mosseri on Wednesday.