Despite Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META), formerly Facebook, promising to provide an age-appropriate experience for young users, it has been revealed that Instagram‘s algorithm continues to recommend sexually explicit content to accounts of teenagers.
What Happened: The Wall Street Journal and academic researcher Laura Edelson conducted tests over seven months, ending in June, which revealed that Instagram’s algorithm consistently suggests adult-oriented content to minors. This occurs within minutes of the teenagers’ first log-in.
These tests, which involved setting up new accounts with listed ages of 13, showed that the content recommended by Instagram’s algorithm quickly escalated from moderately racy content to adult sex content creators. This was observed within a short time frame of less than 20 minutes of watching Reels, Instagram’s curated video stream.
Meta, however, ...