Meta’s latest paid subscription service allowed parents to use their children by charging pedophiles to gawk at their bikini-clad kids on Instagram, where girls as young as nine years old were attracting comments from men reminiscent of “perfect bikini body,” “those thighs are perfection” and “you’re so hot.”
Staffers at Facebook and Instagram parent Meta said that they flagged a whole lot of so-called “parent-managed minor accounts” that were using the subscription feature on those platforms to sell exclusive content that included photos of young girls in bikinis and leotards to mostly men, based on the Wall Street Journal.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has come under fire for his platforms’ effect on children. Rod Lamkey / CNP / SplashNews.com
To make matters worse, Meta’s algorithm-run advice systems were reportedly promoting child-modeling accounts to adults who posted pedophilic comments.
When Meta staffers tried to get the corporate to ban these accounts or no less than force them to register with content moderators in order that they may very well be monitored, their bosses declined — as an alternative selecting to depend on a less-reliable automated system that allowed pedophiles to evade guardrails, sources told Journal.
The report comes as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who personally apologized to folks who confronted him about their children being exploited through his platforms last month, is searching for to avoid personal liability in two dozen lawsuits accusing his company of getting kids hooked on his social media sites.
Last 12 months, Meta introduced a paid-subscription service to entice influencers to supply more content on their flagship social media platforms.
Subscribers to those accounts who agreed to pay $19.99 a month were offered perks reminiscent of “in-person events” in addition to “early access or releases,” based on The Journal report.
The Journal found several instances wherein banned accounts engaged in child exploitation were resurfacing — generating as many as a whole lot of 1000’s of followers.
One Facebook page with greater than 200,000 followers featured pinup-style photos of kids.
The Meta staffers realized that the parents were well aware of highly explicit comments from adults toward their children — even going to this point as to interact in sexual banter about their kids with subscribers.
Meta tools allow parents to use their children by selling explicit photos to pedophiles on Facebook and Instagram, based on a report. AFP via Getty Images
The corporate’s policy required that adults be the one ones eligible to sell content or solicit donations, though it did create a carve-out for teenagers to have their names on an account as long as it was co-managed by an adult.
This led to the creation of child-model accounts which attracted the interest of strange men — prompting one Canadian activist, Sarah Adams, to warn of Instagram pages that included photos of prepubescent girls in bikinis that were being purchased by pedophiles.
“We launched creator monetization tools with a sturdy set of safety measures and multiple checks on each creators and their content,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone told The Journal.
He said Meta’s efforts to bar pedophiles from viewing child-model accounts “a part of our ongoing safety work.”
The Post has sought comment from Meta.
Rival social media platforms TikTok, Patreon and OnlyFans ban subscriptions that feature child models.
