Live data from Hacker News

Instagram Recommends Sexual Videos to Accounts for 13-Year-Olds, Tests Show

wsj.com

11–20 of 109 posts

Re: Instagram Recommends Sexual Videos to Accounts for 13-Year-Olds, Tests Show

#11

I'm genuinely curious, how old were you when you were first exposed to sexual content? I think I was like 7 or 8. Like, we had a channel ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTV_Palma ) publicly broadcasting porn after midnight (I don't remember watching that) and all the older (~15YO) kids around the neighborhood were collecting porn magazines from who knows where and hiding them around in "caches". I remember all the ol…

I don't think you can really compare staying up late to sneakily watch a (typically soft-core) porn and things like that to always having this content being pushed on you with a device always in your pocket every day.

It's really a matter of degree and scale.

Re: Instagram Recommends Sexual Videos to Accounts for 13-Year-Olds, Tests Show

#12
post #9

> In one clip that Instagram recommended to a test account identified as 13 years old, an adult performer promised to send a picture of her “chest bags” via direct message to anyone who commented on her video. Another flashed her genitalia at the camera. When it comes encryption and privacy the legislators just can't wait to jump in an "save the children", let's see how vigorous they are going to be investigating and…

Even more damming imo is that Instagram is rife with those “young model” accounts.

Makes sense though. When you have a product produced in an authoritarian state, they probably spend a lot more time on censoring for better and worse.

Re: Instagram Recommends Sexual Videos to Accounts for 13-Year-Olds, Tests Show

#13
post #9

> In one clip that Instagram recommended to a test account identified as 13 years old, an adult performer promised to send a picture of her “chest bags” via direct message to anyone who commented on her video. Another flashed her genitalia at the camera. When it comes encryption and privacy the legislators just can't wait to jump in an "save the children", let's see how vigorous they are going to be investigating and…

[deleted]

Re: Instagram Recommends Sexual Videos to Accounts for 13-Year-Olds, Tests Show

#14
post #9

> In one clip that Instagram recommended to a test account identified as 13 years old, an adult performer promised to send a picture of her “chest bags” via direct message to anyone who commented on her video. Another flashed her genitalia at the camera. When it comes encryption and privacy the legislators just can't wait to jump in an "save the children", let's see how vigorous they are going to be investigating and…

Same for Snap, which is surprising given its reputation:

> Despite their systems’ similar mechanics, neither TikTok nor Snapchat recommended the sex-heavy video feeds to freshly created teen accounts that Meta did, tests by the Journal and Edelson found.

This imo proves that Meta isn't even trying:

> In some instances, Instagram recommended that teen accounts watch videos that the platform had already labeled as “disturbing.”

This could be a very simple toggle, it's disingenuous to blame everything on the "black box" of the "algorithm."

Re: Instagram Recommends Sexual Videos to Accounts for 13-Year-Olds, Tests Show

#15
post #12
post #9

> In one clip that Instagram recommended to a test account identified as 13 years old, an adult performer promised to send a picture of her “chest bags” via direct message to anyone who commented on her video. Another flashed her genitalia at the camera. When it comes encryption and privacy the legislators just can't wait to jump in an "save the children", let's see how vigorous they are going to be investigating and…

Even more damming imo is that Instagram is rife with those “young model” accounts. Makes sense though. When you have a product produced in an authoritarian state, they probably spend a lot more time on censoring for better and worse.

[flagged]

Re: Instagram Recommends Sexual Videos to Accounts for 13-Year-Olds, Tests Show

#16

Sex is everywhere. The internet has a lot of sex. It has been kind of the default since inception. Wild people just now know of its presence.

There’s a pretty big difference between going out of your way to look for it vs it being served up to you in a feed.

Re: Instagram Recommends Sexual Videos to Accounts for 13-Year-Olds, Tests Show

#17

Sex is everywhere. The internet has a lot of sex. It has been kind of the default since inception. Wild people just now know of its presence.

Sex ed via profit-seeking corporations is going to be pretty different, and arguably much more unnatural, than sex ed via parents and other people who care about you.

Re: Instagram Recommends Sexual Videos to Accounts for 13-Year-Olds, Tests Show

#18
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even more damming imo is that Instagram is rife with those “young model” accounts. Makes sense though. When you have a product produced in an authoritarian state, they probably spend a lot more time on censoring for better and worse.

[flagged]

So you are saying that TikTok US shares zero code to TikTok China?

I never suggested that data is going back to China but my engineering mind jumps immediately to the backends sharing code albeit deployed from two different companies and regions. China is famous for its fast and efficient censorship in social media and assume this ability would transfer to the US.

Re: Instagram Recommends Sexual Videos to Accounts for 13-Year-Olds, Tests Show

#19

I'm genuinely curious, how old were you when you were first exposed to sexual content? I think I was like 7 or 8. Like, we had a channel ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTV_Palma ) publicly broadcasting porn after midnight (I don't remember watching that) and all the older (~15YO) kids around the neighborhood were collecting porn magazines from who knows where and hiding them around in "caches". I remember all the ol…

When I was younger porn was a properly seedy thing that people would consume but almost no-one knew anyone that 'did it'.

Nowadays you have OnlyFans models or similar basically all over every social media platform, businesses trying to sell it as a legit lifestyle, etc. It's completely different, because it's becoming much more bidirectional and open now.

Re: Instagram Recommends Sexual Videos to Accounts for 13-Year-Olds, Tests Show

#20
The hijacking of basic human emotions and drives in the name of some ulterior goal - turning a profit, establishing authority, etc. - is a notion that encompasses and also predates social media, the internet, television and radio advertising, the invention of the printing press, and the tactics of priests and kings throughout recorded history. It's the most fundamental feature of all such propaganda.

If we wanted to really undermine such efforts, we'd be teaching children about the history of such propaganda tactics and methods from a quite young age. This has been tried before in the USA, but it got shut down quickly at the beginning of WWII:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Propaganda_Analy...

Post reply on HN