The alert comes from Stanford University and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). According to their report, Instagram is the main platform used by child criminal networks to promote and sell content showing sexual assaults on minors. "Large networks of accounts, which give the appearance of being operated by minors, openly promote the sale of content" child pornography, said Wednesday researchers at the Cyber Policy Center of the prestigious university of Silicon Valley.
Meta's subsidiary "is currently the largest platform for these networks thanks to features such as content recommendation algorithms and messaging that helps sellers connect with buyers," they added.
And neither paedocriminals nor these networks need to be very naïve. According to the WSJ, a simple search with keywords such as #pedowhore ("pedo whore") or #preteensex ("pre-teen sex") leads to accounts that use these terms to advertise content showing sexual assaults on minors.
Videos with bestiality and self-harm
Often, these profiles "claim to be driven by the children themselves and use overtly sexual pseudonyms with words like little slut for you," the article details. The accounts don't directly say they're selling these images, but they do have menus with options, including asking for specific sex acts, in some cases.
Stanford researchers have also spotted offers for videos with bestiality and self-harm. "At a certain price, children are available for face-to-face meetings," the article continues.
The report highlights the role played by the algorithms of the popular social network: a test account created by the business daily was "flooded with content that sexualizes children" after clicking on a few such recommendations.
"Working Group"
"Child exploitation is a horrifying crime," Meta said. "We are working hard to combat this scourge and rid our platforms of it, and help law enforcement arrest and prosecute the criminals responsible." The social media giant says it has created an "internal task force" to investigate the report's findings and respond accordingly. He also recalls many measures already in place, such as the recruitment of specialists, to fight against "predators who constantly change tactics".
"Between 2020 and 2022, dedicated teams dismantled 27 abusive networks and in January 2023 we disabled more than 490,000 accounts that violated our child safety policies," a spokesperson said. He added that technical issues related to flagging problematic profiles and content have been fixed and that "thousands of additional terms and keywords have been restricted on Instagram."
See alsoThe deaf-mute pedophile sent messages of a sexual nature to minors on Instagram
In all, by the end of 2022, more than 34 million pieces of content related to the sexual exploitation of minors had been removed from Facebook and Instagram, more than 98% of which were detected before a user report, according to Meta.
Last March, pension and investment funds filed a complaint against the company for "turning a blind eye" to human trafficking and child crime on its platforms. Instagram is also regularly accused by associations and authorities of not sufficiently protecting children from the risks of bullying, addiction and self-image problems.
