Instagram is recommending sexual videos to kids as young as 13, according to a new Wall Street Journal study released Thursday, June 20. The Journal created new accounts and set the ages to 13 years old to see what kind of content would be recommended.
Researchers said right off the bat, the accounts were recommended “moderately racy” videos like women dancing sensually or showing off their bodies. The Journal reported it took as little as three minutes after the accounts were created to start getting sexual reels.
The study also found accounts that watched those videos and skipped over other reels started getting more explicit suggestions, including videos of women pantomiming sex acts or promising to send nude images.
In January, Instagram owner Meta said it was giving teens a more age-appropriate experience by restricting “sensitive content,” including sexually suggestive material.
For comparison, the Journal did the same test on TikTok and Snapchat. The report said neither recommended sexual videos to the accounts created as “teens.”
In fact, researchers even used those accounts to search age-inappropriate videos and follow accounts that produced them. They said the TikTok and Snapchat accounts still did not get age-inappropriate recommendations, even after that.