tech
December 23, 2025
Don't trust Meta with your teenagers
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.
TL;DR
- Instagram's algorithm is pushing harmful content, including material related to body dysmorphia, extreme dieting, and sexualized jokes, to teenagers.
- Meta, Instagram's parent company, has been shown to provide suicide content and "how-to" guides to teen accounts.
- A significant portion of Instagram's safety tools for teens are ineffective or no longer exist.
- Meta's business model relies on keeping users engaged for longer periods and increasing ad clicks, incentivizing them to target teenagers for addiction.
- Mark Zuckerberg admitted to succumbing to FBI pressure to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story and to suppressing "misinformation" on behalf of the Biden administration.
- Meta knowingly allowed scam advertisements from Chinese advertisers, contributing to a substantial portion of their ad revenue.
- An anti-fraud team within Meta was dissolved because Zuckerberg decided to allow fraudulent Chinese ads to continue.
- The author questions Meta's commitment to the well-being of teenagers given their history with profit-driven decisions regarding harmful content and scams.
- Parents are advised to withhold smartphones, internet access, and social media from children during their formative years.
- The article suggests Meta's reach and power necessitate a code of conduct grounded in moral decency and truth, which the author believes is lacking.
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