Instagram rolls out features to protect young users amid mounting controversies

The announcement comes a day before the head of Instagram will face lawmakers.

Instagram announced a slew of updates on Tuesday that aim to protect teens on the app, in an announcement that notably comes one day before Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri is set to testify before lawmakers on social media's impact on young users.

Mosseri announced the new features in a company blog post on Tuesday, which includes launching the "Take a Break" feature in the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

"If someone has been scrolling for a certain amount of time, we’ll ask them to take a break from Instagram and suggest that they set reminders to take more breaks in the future," Monserri said. "We’ll also show them expert-backed tips to help them reflect and reset."

Mosseri said they will also be taking a stricter approach to what they recommend to teens on the app via search,explore, hashtags and suggested accounts and will stop people from tagging or mentioning teens that don't follow them. Instagram will also start nudging teens towards different topics if they've been dwelling on one topic for a long time.