The vice president who led youth product initiatives at Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is leaving after an internal restructuring, acc...
The vice president who led youth product initiatives at Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is leaving after an internal restructuring, according to a memo from the company obtained by The New York Times on Wednesday.
Pavni Diwanji, who joined in late 2020 and previously oversaw YouTube Kids at Google, “decided to move on” after the restructuring, according to the note from Instagram chief executive Adam Mosseri. Under Mr Mosseri, Ms Diwanji had been tapped to lead the company’s ‘youth task force’. She was responsible for developing products such as age verification and parental supervision tools, as well as Meta app experiences that could be used by children under the age of 13.
The most important of these efforts has been a youthful version of Instagramwho youThe company said it would postpone in September after The Wall Street Journal reported on internal research suggesting some young people were facing negative mental health effects from the popular photo-sharing app. Instagram executives had argued that a youth version was needed because kids were already using the main app, while critics saw it as a way the company could attract users at a younger age.
“Pavni was a tremendous champion for her teams and drove this cross-company effort,” Mosseri wrote in her memo.
Ms. Diwanji did not respond to a request for comment.
Stephanie Otway, a spokeswoman for Meta, said in a statement that the company is still “developing safe and age-appropriate experiences for teens.”
Meta has faced a storm of criticism from lawmakers over its children’s products. Mr. Mosseri has noted that work on Instagram’s children’s version “leaked long before we knew what it would be” and that the company had “few answers” for the public at the time.
In December, he testified before a Senate subcommittee on consumer protection. Lawmakers chastised him and the company for not doing enough to protect young people.
Mr Mosseri said in his memo on Wednesday that he would continue to lead the youth effort, which “remains a high priority in Meta”.
“I know the teams have worked hard to ensure youth is a key consideration in product development across the company – including in VR and Messenger – and I will continue to be an advocate for collaboration and coordination here,” he wrote.
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