The algorithm behind Instagram Reels recommends sexualized videos of children and adults to users who follow young gymnasts, cheerleaders, teens, and preteen influencers, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said in a recent report.
The WSJ made this discovery after conducting tests to determine the type of content Instagram Reels suggests to people who follow teens and young content creators. They found that the sexual content Instagram’s algorithm recommends is interspersed with advertisements from prominent U.S. brands, including Disney, Walmart, Match Group, and Bumble.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the Attorney General for New Mexico filed a lawsuit against Meta, accusing the company of recommending inappropriate, sexual content to underage users on its platforms and promoting minors’ accounts to child predators.
User Engagement Over Safety
In interviews, current and former Meta employees have admitted that Instagram’s algorithm tends to push problematic content when users show interest in a particular subject.
“Once Instagram pigeonholes a user as interested in any particular subject matter, they said, its recommendation systems are trained to push more related content to them,” the WSJ stated in its report.
“In a stream of videos recommended by Instagram, an ad for the dating app Bumble appeared between a video of someone stroking the face of a life-size latex doll and a video of a young girl with a digitally obscured face lifting up her shirt to expose her midriff,” the WSJ added. “In another, a Pizza Hut commercial followed a video of a man lying on a bed with his arm around what the caption said was a 10-year-old girl.”
Advertisers have reacted to these and other concerns. For instance, Match Group began canceling Meta advertisements for its apps like Tinder in October, and Bumble has said it would never intentionally advertise adjacent to inappropriate content. Meanwhile, Disney has since demanded improvements to brand safety features on Meta’s platforms, while Walmart and Pizza Hut did not comment when contacted by the WSJ.
Meta has defended its systems. “Our systems are effective at reducing harmful content, and we’ve invested billions in safety, security, and brand suitability solutions,” a spokesperson said.
However, the WSJ claims Meta is prioritizing engagement over user safety. “Company documents reviewed by the Journal show that the company’s safety staffers are broadly barred from making changes to the platform that might reduce daily active users by any measurable amount,” the WSJ revealed.
How to Keep Your Child Safe on Instagram
Whether these are glitches in Instagram’s artificial intelligence algorithms — designed to personalize user experience — or bad business practices, the most effective measure to safeguard your child’s privacy on Instagram is to adhere to the platform’s age requirement (13 years and above).
However, this is easier said than done, as Instagram relies on self-reported age, which can be easily falsified. If you’re concerned about the safety of your underage child, you could delete their Instagram accounts.
Alternatively, you can adjust their Instagram privacy settings, like limiting interactions with specific accounts, making their account private, making their stories private, and more. Read our guide to optimizing your Instagram privacy settings to learn how to keep your child safe.
For teens aged 13 and 17, Instagram also offers a feature named “Supervision on Instagram” that allows parents to monitor their activity. You can oversee their screen time, their interactions with other accounts, and access sensitivity settings.
For more news, follow us on X (Twitter), Threads, and Mastodon!
