What do leftists who worked on Obamacare, the Biden 2020 campaign, and I all have in common? We’re equally appalled and terrified at the way social media companies are targeting America’s teenagers.
Accountability Tech is run by left-leaning thinkers who have long resumes in the liberal world, and this week, it revealed what happened when Gen Z volunteers, aged 18 to 22, from Design It For Us pretended to be teenage minors on Instagram.
The groups ran tests on “Teen Accounts” on Instagram and reported the devastating findings that the social media site isn’t just showing minors bad content; it’s showcasing it.
Meta, which owns Instagram, claims these Teen Accounts are “Instagram accounts for teens 13-17 that are automatically set to more protective teen safety settings. These settings aim to help keep teens safe on Instagram by limiting unwanted contact, showing content that’s right for their age and helping them manage their time on Instagram.”
If the above statement is true, then either the five participants in the test study were flukes, or social media giants do not care about what they are serving up to young people because they are making a profit when they showcase sex, eating disorders, and abusive relationships.
During the test, the nonpartisan nonprofit organization found that “5 out of 5 of our test Teen Accounts were algorithmically recommended sensitive content, despite Meta’s default sensitive content controls being enabled[,] 5 out of 5 of our test Teen Accounts were algorithmically recommended sexual content[,] 4 out of 5 of our test Teen Accounts were algorithmically recommended body image and disordered eating content[, and] 4 out of 5 research participants had distressing experiences while using Instagram Teen Accounts.”
I’m a millennial mother and fully understand the risks of social media, yet this still gets me down. I avoid my search bar because it is full of diet and workout tips or, most recently, plastic surgery and beauty suggestions I have never sought. Knowing that teenagers were served up inappropriate content instead of good content, such as history, crafting, travel, food recipes, and more, is sad. Notably, the interests selected by the participants were health, wellness, fitness, and dieting.
One of the things that disturbed me the most was the mix of toxic diet culture and body image issues with a dab of chauvinistic male culture. An image one of the girl volunteers was served up shows a man looking at a restaurant menu and a woman with a well-manicured hand sporting a large engagement ring with the caption, “When he doesn’t allow you to choose your meals so you stay skinny but he buys you whatever you want to wear,” finished with a pink heart emoji, as if that is the epitome of healthy relationship.
After one male participant posing as a 16-year-old boy followed accounts such as soccer legends Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, he was eventually served Andrew Tate videos degrading women.
It is clear that the nation’s youth need to be protected not only from the content on the internet but also from the corporations harvesting their data and serving them up said content while profiting off it. The biggest shock, though, is that parents have been fully duped: More than 90% think these Teen Accounts are safe for their children. They are not.
Take the devices away. Do the hard thing. First, have a conversation with your children about the why, and then call your sitting senator and tell him or her to do something about it now.
APP STORE AGE RESTRICTION BILL PASSES WITHOUT OBJECTION
The bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act was reintroduced in the Senate last week. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR) supports it, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) sponsors it.
I’m a small government conservative, but when corporations are not being transparent, are making money off of minors viewing inappropriate content, and are then lying about it, it’s time for the government to get involved.
Elisha Krauss is a conservative commentator and speaker who resides in Los Angeles, California, with her husband and their four children. She advocates women’s rights, school choice, and smaller government.