WSJ: It took 3 minutes for Instagram to show 13-year-olds adult-sex content
We all know that it’s possible to get to some very dark parts of Instagram. The Wall Street Journal and an academic researcher found that it also happens within minutes for young teens.
Using new accounts that listed the user’s age at 13, they report being able to get adult sex-content creators to appear in their video feeds, called Reels, in as little as three minutes by lingering on racy content. In 20 minutes, their feeds were dominated by such content creators, with “some offering to send nude photos to users who engaged with their posts.”
That’s a problem since Instagram owner Meta said in January that teens younger than 16 weren’t supposed to be shown sexually explicit content at all. The researchers didn’t find the same results on tests it ran for competitors Snapchat and TikTok.
A Meta spokesperson told WSJ these results don’t “match the reality of how teens use Instagram.”
That’s a problem since Instagram owner Meta said in January that teens younger than 16 weren’t supposed to be shown sexually explicit content at all. The researchers didn’t find the same results on tests it ran for competitors Snapchat and TikTok.
A Meta spokesperson told WSJ these results don’t “match the reality of how teens use Instagram.”
