Instagram accounts that contain mostly images of children but are run by adult users will no longer be recommended to “potentially suspicious adults.” The update was announced in a blog post detailing the latest expansion of Meta’s child safety features, which includes new blocking and notification options for teens, as well as additional protection for accounts run by adults but featuring images of children.
This follows a 2023 lawsuit that accused Facebook and Instagram of becoming “a marketplace for predators in search of children,” claiming that Meta platforms “allowed users to search, like, share, and sell vast amounts of [child sexual abuse material].” The same year, an investigation by The Wall Street Journal found that Instagram’s recommendation algorithms were actively promoting pedophile networks.
Since then, Meta has introduced a series of online safety measures for Facebook and Instagram users under the age of 18, some of which now extend to adults who frequently post images of children – a group that Meta says often includes parents and talent managers. Instagram will now “avoid recommending” such accounts to suspicious adults, such as those blocked by teens, and in turn will avoid redirecting suspicious users to adult accounts with images of children. The app will also hide comments from potentially suspicious adults on their posts and make it harder to find both types of accounts in Search.
While Meta claims that these adult-run accounts are “overwhelmingly used for benevolent purposes,” the company has also been accused of knowingly allowing parents who sexually exploit their children for financial gain on Facebook and Instagram to remain on these platforms. Hiding potential predators from adult accounts involving children builds on last year’s Meta update that banned accounts with many children from offering subscriptions or receiving gifts.
Other teen account features coming to accounts with children in the coming months will automatically set the strictest Instagram message settings for them and filter out offensive and inappropriate comments. Some additional security features are coming to Instagram DMs, which provide teen accounts with combined reports and a blocking option. Teens will now also see the month and year that the account they are messaging joined Instagram, which will help them identify potential abusers and scammers.
