Collective Shout's Caitlin Roper quoted in 10 Daily
Instagram and Facebook have announced a crack down on advertisements for diet and cosmetic surgery products. The measures include age restrictions on who can see the advertising.
While we welcome this news, we question why Instagram hasn't taken any proactive measures against the proliferation of child sexual exploitation on their platform. We recently wrote about the sexual exploitation of girls on Instagram under the guise of 'child modelling.'
Collective Shout's Caitlin Roper raised the issue of sexual exploitation with 10 Daily when asked to comment on the new diet and surgery policy.
"We do welcome this news- we know that young women and girls are under enormous pressure to conform to impossible standards of beauty, and that this toxic content on Instagram contributes to that," Caitlin Roper, campaigns manager, Collective Shout told 10 daily.
The Australian-based organisation that campaigns against the objectification of women and sexualisation of girls said there is still a lot more that social media companies must do.
Just this week, the organisation published an article with concerns about sexualised content of underage girls on Instagram, where Roper says "mothers are essentially pimping out their daughters" and argues that Instagram should stop providing a platform for these sexualised images of minors.
"After reporting some pages, Instagram reported that no community guidelines have been breached. Some of these accounts are linked to Patreon accounts where viewers (which appear to be paedophiles, based on comments) can pay for subscriptions to more content, like underage girls washing the dog in a bikini."
‘Sexy girl’: How Instagram allows the offering of young girls as fetishised flesh
The sexualisation of girls for profit
Instagram hosts countless pages filled with sexualised images of kids, many under the guise of 'child models' promoting dancewear and swimwear. There are girls standing, hip to the side, pulling on bikini bottoms. Others are posed with arched backs and spread legs. Backsides to camera, arms overhead. Girls look wistfully back at the camera, lips parted. Side-shots capture girls with backsides pushed out.
Kids don't naturally strike these poses. Adults put them up to it. And we know how these poses keep women and girls in their place, for example, by portraying them as submissive or positioned for sex. Read more
See also:
Belle Delphine and the eroticisation of child sexual exploitation on Instagram
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