This…is not good news. By the by, the other hashtags McKenna tested were just as horrific and reporting also made no difference with them; in the case of two of the hashtags, the number of pornographic photos and videos increased over Chris’ five days of reporting. The other three all stayed the same, no decrease whatsoever.
What parents can do to combat Instagram porn
First and foremost, we need to hold Instagram accountable and use platforms like this one and alllll our social media accounts to call on them to do MORE to get rid of this stuff. Some things Protect Young Eyes is calling on Instagram to do include:
- Raise the difficulty (and I would add, age limit) on creating an account
- Use machine learning to identify and block porn (This tech DOES exist)
- Prevent obviously non-compliant (with Instagram’s guidelines) hashtags from being used
- Hire more humans to review and remove content that violates your community guidelines
- Create a safe mode for parents who want to teach their kids how to use Instragram
- Remove Instagram’s blog from Tumblr (kids can search whatevvvver they want, filter-free with this backdoor, and they know about it)
Parents, fire up your fingers. Email your demands to Instagram at their contact form at http://help.instagram.com/, (that’s right, they don’t even have an actual email address you can use. LAME) and then copy and paste that email to your Facebook account and encourage your peers to do the same! We CAN use our voices to effect change, just like we did with Cosmo After Dark!
What parents can do to protect their kids from Instagram porn
Naturally, I would argue that you just shouldn’t let your kid have an Instagram. That’s how we’re rolling with it in my house. But, even if you don’t allow your kiddo to have one, you’re gonna want to have their mobile devices locked down tight anyway. Protect Young Eyes recommends BARK, saying, “Instagram doesn’t provide parental controls. The only solution we recommend for monitoring Instagram is BARK. On Android, BARK can even alert parents to inappropriate searches in Explore (not on iOS yet). It’s a start and honestly, the best we can do for now, until Instagram gives us some help.”
Also, if your kid does have an Insta, you’re doing to need to follow them and their accounts very closely to make sure they don’t have a Finsta (fake instagram), follow people that they follow, check comments, and talk talk TALK about bullying, not messaging with strangers, depression and anxiety, and reporting ANYTHING they see that makes them uncomfortable. Giving your child social media basically creates a new part time monitoring job for you as a parent, and it’s just TOO important to slack off on. Consider THAT before you give your kid the keys to these apps…do you have what it takes time-wise to ensure their safety?
Let’s band together and call on Instagram to make a change, parents! We deserve safe social media for ourselves to use, as well as for our kids. The bottom line is: if Instagram is letting 13-year-olds use their app, they need to crack down on mature content.
