Instagram showing sexual Reels to teens, claims report

Instagram is recommending sexual videos to users as young as 13 years old, according to a new study. The Wall Street Journal and a researcher from Northeastern University conducted tests over seven months that revealed alarming results.
The study found that Instagram's video feature, called Reels, quickly began showing sexually suggestive content to test accounts set up as 13-year-olds.Within just three minutes of creating an account, sexual videos started appearing. After 20 minutes, the feeds were filled with adult content creators offering nude photos.
"Instagram largely stopped recommending the comedy and stunt videos and fed the test accounts a steady stream of videos in which women pantomimed sex acts, graphically described their anatomy or caressed themselves to music with provocative lyrics," the Journal reported.
The researchers created new Instagram accounts pretending to be 13-year-old users. They then watched videos in the Reels section, skipping over normal content but lingering on suggestive videos. They did not follow any accounts or search for specific content.
At first, Instagram showed a mix of videos, including comedy and car clips. However, it soon began recommending more explicit content when the test accounts watched suggestive videos to completion. In some cases, Instagram recommended "video after video about anal sex" to a test account posing as a young teen.
The Journal noted that similar tests on TikTok and Snapchat did not produce the same results. Those platforms did not recommend sexual videos to fake teen accounts.
Meta, the company that owns Instagram, disputed the findings. A spokesperson called it "an artificial experiment that doesn't match the reality of how teens use Instagram." The company said it has been working to reduce sensitive content shown to teens.
However, the Journal reported that Meta's own internal research has found similar problems. In 2021, company safety staff ran tests that produced comparable results. A 2022 internal analysis showed that Instagram displays more inappropriate content to young users than to adults.
The findings come as social media companies face increasing scrutiny over their impact on young users. Meta has been sued multiple times over allegations of failing to protect children from exploitation on its platforms. In January, Meta announced stricter content controls for teens, but the recent tests suggest these measures may not be fully effective.