As a Gen Xer and hobbyist armchair psychologist with a keen interest in how social media continues to influence the way people both interact with each other and cultivate self-image, oftentimes I find myself (and my peers) chalking up our generational discord with Millennials and Gen Z to having not grown up with access to the internet and the notion of a virtual second-life. And while there are still some educational movements—ironically, especially popular in communities such as Silicon Valley—that try to protect small children from technology and social media until at least adolescence, the vast majority of modern parents have embraced tech exposure, think: Baby Shark, the iPad babysitter, the unavoidable Zoom curriculum of 2020, and more.

Last week, Facebook announced in an internal memo that the company will develop an Instagram app for children under the age of 13. Currently, children under the age of 13 aren't allowed to have personal accounts on big-Instagram (though the company admits this is difficult to enforce) and the company recently published a blog post about making Instagram "safer for the younger members of our community."

"Instagram can provide young people the opportunity to strengthen connections, practice social skills and find supportive communities," Dr. Dave Anderson, Clinical Psychologist, Child Mind Institute, said in a statement.

"It’s important that teens and parents are equipped with information on how to manage their time on the platform so that it's thoughtful, safe and intentional. The new Parents Guide we've worked on does a great job of distilling what parents should know about how to support their teens as they navigate social media."

Besides the most obvious potential for age-inappropriate stranger-danger on Instagram, there are also growing concerns over social media-related bullying among peers, detrimental effects on social media's impact on self-esteem, as well as content concerns around how celebrity and influencer images may or may not perpetuate "porn culture", readily accessible to young teens.

Still, Facebook is forging ahead with the new platform launch, calling it a "priority" to engage in "youth work" and to develop a product—a "version of Instagram"—for children.

"I’m excited to announce that going forward, we have identified youth work as a priority for Instagram and have added it to our H1 priority list," Vishal Shah, Instagram’s vice president of product, wrote on an employee message board, according to a report in Buzzfeed.

"We will be building a new youth pillar within the Community Product Group to focus on two things: (a) accelerating our integrity and privacy work to ensure the safest possible experience for teens and (b) building a version of Instagram that allows people under the age of 13 to safely use Instagram for the first time."

Here's what's been revealed so far about the imminent Instagram for Kids app.