We've had another major #WakeUpInstagram win, with Instagram's rollout of new tools to help protect underage users from predators on the platform including:
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Restricting Direct Messages between teens and adults they don’t follow
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Making it more difficult for adults to find and follow teens
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Prompting teens to set their accounts to ‘private'
You can read more about these here.
The announcement follows our global joint #wakeupinstagram campaign efforts made in collaboration with our friends at the National Center On Sexual Exploitation and Defend Dignity - and our 2-year investigation into the sexual harassment and predation of teen and young girls on the popular Facebook-owned social media platform. In our work, we've documented the rampant sexualisation of minors on Instagram, and highlighted the ways Instagram is geared to connecting men to underage girls.
Last September we announced our first #WakeUpInstagram win when, in response to one of our campaign asks, Instagram launched a new in-app reporting tool for reporting accounts and content which sexualises minors. We celebrated a second win in October after Instagram introduced a tool for US users to block strangers from direct messaging them.
We recently contributed to a Facebook research initiative aimed at improving safety for minors on Instagram. And behind the scenes, we are continuing our work with Facebook to report child predators and have sexually exploitative content removed from Instagram.
We are pleased to see these additions and grateful for your support of the #WakeUpInstagram campaign!
There's still a lot to be done - for example - we're still waiting for predatory, sexualised comments to be proactively blocked on images of underage girls. We continue to document these daily - see the image below for just a few examples and keep in mind there are thousands more just like these.
Comments on pic of 10 year old girl posted to her public Instagram page
We will continue to campaign for an end to the sexual harassment and exploitation of underage girls on Instagram and look forward to even more improvements to child and teen safety on the platform later this year - stay tuned.
See also
Win! Instagram adds in-app reporting tool to flag accounts that sexualise children
‘Sexy girl’: How Instagram allows the offering of young girls as fetishised flesh
Why is Instagram letting men share sexual fantasies about 7 year old girls?
School girl’s Instagram ‘live’ post becomes sex predator webcam
Insta must act on predators: Collective Shout letter to platform heads
eSafety commissioner backs Collective Shout's call for Instagram overhaul
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