Why does Instagram allow men to tell underage girls they want to rape them? Global call for action to protect minors from predators.
Collective Shout has joined a global campaign calling on Instagram to take urgent action to protect young girls from the predatory behaviours of large numbers of men congregating on their pages. Campaigner Lyn Swanson Kennedy discovered hundreds of comments from men describing sexual acts they wanted to perform on the girls.
Collective Shout has joined forces with the National Centre on Sexual Exploitation (US) and Demand Dignity (Canada) stating that Instagram has become a predator’s paradise and calling on the global picture-posting platform to implement safety measures to protect underage girls.
Kennedy described her shock at coming across large numbers of predatory comments containing descriptions of sexual abuse fantasies even for girls as young as seven - and grooming-style behaviours on the Facebook-owned platform. A 9-year old girl was described as having a ‘fat little p*ssy’ by one man while another described in detail how he would assault her.
“Instagram is providing a platform for men to share their sexually explicit comments about young girls,” Kennedy said
"What we’ve found shows that sexualisation and harassment of underage girls on Instagram is rampant. By giving adults unfettered access to children and facilitating the transmission of sexual comments Instagram is complicit in putting underage girls at risk and normalising them as available for sexual gratification.
“This is a gross act of social irresponsibility and violates socially expected standards of corporate conduct.
“My colleagues and I are spending a lot of time reporting these comments. Too often Instagram says the sexually explicit comments don’t violate their “community guidelines”. Perhaps it’s time for their board to come up with some new guidelines to protect children?”
We are calling for Instagram to:
1) Change its settings so that strangers cannot direct message minors.
2) Fix its algorithm to proactively remove sexualising or sexually graphic comments on minor’s photos.
3) Update its reporting system so that if someone is reporting a sexual comment on a minor’s post it can be reported as such. The “harassment/bullying” selection does not capture the fact that these comments come from adults who are grooming/sexualising/harassing a child.
The campaign is being run under the hashtags #WakeUpInstagram and #InstaPimpsGirls. Screenshots and videos of evidence here: https://endsexualexploitation.org/instagram/.
Saturday 23 November 2019
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