Instagram teenager accounts are being pushed on me everywhere I look. It’s like the algorithm knows I have a tween in my home (even though she’s a tween without a cellphone who will not have access to social media until she turns 18 years old). Some parents may be tempted by this feature. But the risks of having a child on Instagram are too great to entrust a major corporation to protect young users.
Earlier in the year, volunteers for a digital watchdog group posed as teenagers and created test accounts that were served up a host of dangerous material, including body dysmorphia, extreme dieting tips, overt and blatant sexualized jokes, and videos about sex acts you would never want your teenager Googling or asking a friend about.
Recent follow-ups from journalists showed that Meta, the parent company of Instagram, is showing suicide content, including “how-to” guides, to teenager accounts. Another study showed that “30 out of 47 safety tools for teens on Instagram were ‘substantially ineffective or no longer exist.’”
Meta makes money the more time you spend on its platforms and the more advertisements you click through. It carefully selects the advertisements, videos, or memes that will keep you on the apps or entice you to spend money. So, of course, it wants your teenager addicted, watching longer, and clicking more.
Consider the things founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has readily admitted to, albeit a few years too late. Zuckerberg told podcaster Joe Rogan that Meta succumbed to pressure from the FBI to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story. He told Congress Facebook listened to the Biden administration during the COVID-19 pandemic and suppressed “misinformation” on behalf of the White House.
Now we know that Meta knowingly allowed scam advertisements on its platform to rake in big bucks from Chinese advertisers on Facebook. You know, the ones your mother probably clicked on and then forwarded to you.
According to the Morning Brew, the company made almost 19% of its Chinese advertisement revenue via “ads for banned subject matter like adult content, illegal gambling, and outright scams.” Apparently, some within the company saw this as a problem and sought to remove the offending advertisements from Meta’s platforms: “The team removed so many ads that revenue from fraudulent promotions fell from 19% of total Chinese ad revenue to 9% in the second half of 2024.”
In internal documents reviewed by Reuters, which first reported the story, the anti-fraud team was dissolved because Zuckerberg, as CEO, made a call to allow the scams to continue. According to the Morning Brew, “By mid-2025, revenue from the fraudulent Chinese ads rose back to about 16% of Meta’s China revenue.”
If Zuckerberg is happy to serve up scams, pornography, and illegal gambling to your mother and grandmother for his bottom line, what makes you think he or his corporation cares about the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of your teenager?
He does not. It does not. It’s time to wake up and be the “mean mom.” Don’t give your children smartphones. Don’t give them unfettered access to the internet. And definitely don’t let them on social media during their crucially vulnerable and formative years.
HEAD OF INSTAGRAM UNVEILS ALGORITHM FOR TEENAGERS THAT MIRRORS PG-13 RATINGS
For every whistleblower or news reveal of what is happening within the underbelly of Meta, we can assume there are many more truths to be revealed that we may never know. But shouldn’t we require a company with such extensive reach and power to adhere to a certain code of conduct grounded in moral decency and truth? Alas, it seems like I’m asking too much from Zuckerberg and his peers over at Meta.
Until Zuckerberg and his shareholders realize that it is more judicious to protect the innocence of minors, allow freedom of speech, and only allow reputable businesses access to their users, we should be very cautious of Meta. And we should keep our children far away from Zuckerberg’s greedy decision-making.
Elisha Krauss is a conservative commentator and speaker who lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband and their four children. She is an advocate for women’s rights, school choice, and smaller government.
