Instagram doesn’t allow children under 13 to have accounts, but parents are allowed to manage them — and many do so for daughters who aspire to be social media influencers.
What often begins as a parent’s attempt to launch a child’s modeling career or gain favors from clothing brands can quickly descend into a dark underworld dominated by grown men, many of whom openly admit on other platforms that they are attracted to sexually by children. found a New York Times investigation.
Thousands of so-called mom-run accounts reviewed by the Times offer disturbing insights into how social media is reshaping childhood, especially for girls, with the direct encouragement and involvement of parents.
Nearly one in three pre-teens list influence as a career goal, and 11 percent of Generation Z born between 1997 and 2012 describe themselves as influencers. However, health and technology experts recently warned that social media poses a “profound risk of harm” to girls. Constant comparisons with their peers and face-altering filters cause negative feelings of self-esteem and promote objectification of their bodies, the researchers found.
The pursuit of online fame, particularly through Instagram, has overloaded the often toxic phenomenon, the Times found, encouraging parents to commercialize their daughter’s images. These are some key findings.
Parents are the driving force behind the bills. Some offer to sell photos, exclusive chat sessions, and even dress up baby girls to unknown mostly male followers.
Influencers can earn a six-figure income from monthly subscriptions and other interactions with followers, according to interviews. Some can demand $3,000 from companies for a single position. Large followings look impressive for brands and increase your chances of receiving discounts, products and other financial incentives, while the accounts themselves are rewarded by Instagram’s algorithm with more visibility on the platform.
As the accounts gain followers, they also attract a higher percentage of men. Interacting with men opens the door to abuse.
A calculation by an audience demographics firm found 32 million connections with male followers among the 5,000 accounts the Times reviewed. Additionally, an analysis using image classification software from Google and Microsoft shows that suggestive posts are more likely to receive likes and comments.
Some of the male fans flatter, bully and blackmail the girls and their parents to get more racy images, while some have been convicted of sex crimes. The Times watched separate exchanges on Telegram, the messaging app, where men openly fantasize about sexually abusing the children they follow on Instagram and praise the platform for making the images so easily available.
“It’s like a candy shop 😍😍😍,” wrote one of them. “God bless instamoms 🙌,” wrote another.
Account owners who report inappropriate images or potential predators on Instagram are usually met with silence or indifference.
Meta, Instagram’s parent company, found that 500,000 children’s Instagram accounts had “inappropriate” interactions every day, according to an internal study in 2020 cited in legal proceedings. The platform’s policy prohibits convicted sex offenders, and the company said it removed two accounts after the Times flagged them.
In a statement, Andy Stone, a spokesman for Meta, said parents are responsible for their accounts and their content and can delete them at any time. “Anyone on Instagram can control who can tag, mention or message them, as well as who can comment on their account,” he added, noting a feature that allows parents to ban comments containing certain words.
Some parents refuse to give in to creepy “bullies,” but others regret opening an account.
An Australian mother, whose daughter is now 17, said she was worried her childhood sporting bikinis online for grown men had left her scarred. She warned mothers to avoid her mistakes. “I have foolishly, naively fed a pack of monsters and my regret is immense,” he said. But one Alabama mother said parents couldn’t ignore the reality of this new economy. “Social media is the way of our future and I feel like they’re going to be left behind if they don’t know what’s going on,” he said.
Although rare, there have been criminal prosecutions against parents accused of child sexual abuse.
Even the most disturbing images of sexualized influencer children tend to fall into a legal gray area. To meet the federal definition of so-called child pornography, the law generally requires a “surreptitious exposure” of the anal or genital area, although courts have found that the requirement can be met without nudity or bare clothing.
