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Meta gives researchers access to Instagram data for teen mental health study

Meta is letting a group of researchers examine Instagram data to determine if there's a link between social media and the state of a teenager's mental well-being.

The Verge reported that the Center for Open Science (COS) is launching a new joint pilot program with Meta to produce independent studies about how social media affects teenagers’ mental health. Other scientific studies conducted by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and New York University and Stanford have found parallel links between social media use and the state of a person’s mental health. The link earned greater awareness last year when Arturo Béjar, a former director of engineering for Protect and Care at Facebook, testified before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee that he alerted the company and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg by email of the dangers their product could have on young people.

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