Here's what Facebook has to say about WSJ's report on Instagram's impact on teen mental health

In its report, which was published nearly two weeks ago, The WSJ claimed that Facebook's own in-depth research shows a significant teen mental-health issue that the company plays down in public.

Responding to The Wall Street Journal's recent report on the negative effect of Instagram on the mental health of teens, Facebook today said that it is simply not accurate that this research demonstrates Instagram is "toxic" for teen girls, adding that its research found teens report having both positive and negative experiences with social media.

In its report, which was published nearly two weeks ago, The WSJ claimed that Facebook's own in-depth research shows a significant teen mental-health issue that the company plays down in public.

In a blog post, Pratiti Raychoudhury, Facebook's Vice President and Head of Research, said that the research actually demonstrated that many teens we heard from feel that using Instagram helps them when they are struggling with the kinds of hard moments and issues teenagers have always faced.

According to the Facebook post, body image was the only area where teen girls who reported struggling with the issue said Instagram made it worse as compared to the other 11 areas on the slide referenced by the Journal.

"Contrary to The Wall Street Journal's characterization, Instagram's research shows that on 11 of 12 well-being issues, teenage girls who said they struggled with those difficult issues also said that Instagram made them better rather than worse," said Raychoudhury.

Raychoudhury also claimed that the study, some of which has just 40 participants, was designed to inform internal conversations about teens' most negative perceptions of Instagram, adding that it did not measure causal relationships between Instagram and real-world issues.

For more details on the research, head over to Facebook's official blog post.