San Francisco, June 20:  Meta-owned Instagram has reportedly recommended sex videos to  13-year-old users on the platform. Instagram was previously alleged to have similar reasons for showing or recommending explicit or adult material or running ads of similar content on websites like Facebook and Instagram. A new report claimed that Instagram users around 13 years of age who were interested in such "racy" content were recommended such sexual videos on the platform.

WSJ reported that the videos were recommended to the minors within minutes of their first login to the platform. The Wall Street Journal said that the tests, which were conducted over seven months, showed that the Meta-owned Instagram continued to push the adult content on the platform. The report highlighted that the findings were uncovered through internal research at Meta, which pledged an 'age-appropriate' experience for teenagers. Pornhub Plans To Block Its Adult Entertainment Services to 5 More States in US Over New Age Verification Laws.

According to the report, the tests conducted over seven months ended in June 2024, which showed that the platform offered an 'age-appropriate' experience for teens by allowing 'sensitive content' on the platform. To test whether this Meta platform was recommending videos, a researcher created 13 years of age accounts. After the creation of these accounts, the researcher was able to see different types of content, such as moderately racy adult content, various poses that emphasised the female's breasts, seductive dancing videos,

WSJ said that after consuming this content, within 3 minutes, Instagram recommended videos from adult content creators in the feed. When the researcher watched these content for around 20 minutes, similar videos reportedly dominated the account. The researcher said that soon, the adult or sex content creators were ready to send their nudes to these test accounts that consumed their content. BharatPe Partners With Invest India To Promote Digital Financial Inclusion and Financial Literacy Across ODOP Initiative.

In February 2024, Mark Zuckerberg-run Meta was reportedly allowing parents who sexually exploited their children for financial gains on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.  The report also mentioned that some of these users also used the paid subscription tools on the platform.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 20, 2024 04:01 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).