Ever since the Wall Street Journal began publishing the Facebook Files, its harrowing series on the machinations inside the world’s largest social media platform, people have seized on the company’s plans for, of all things, Instagram Kids. The notion, on its face, appears as almost a caricature of Facebook’s steroidal growth ambitions and collective paucity of emotional intelligence: a toxic, Juul-like attempt to impress its addictive algorithm on a new generation. In one leaked document, Facebook researchers discuss the devastating mental health impact that Instagram can have on young girls. In another, the company considered whether it could “leverage playdates” to onboard more tweens to an ancillary product, Messenger Kids. 

But while the public outcry is appropriate, given Facebook’s rapacious efforts to preserve and expand its market share, it also underscores an underlying vulnerability at the very top of the company. For all the controversy surrounding its overtures, Facebook appears less worried about seducing teens than what happens if those teens give up on them.