Drugs are relatively easy for minors to get on Instagram
In the last few months, one company has been the focus of reporting: Meta. Driven by the publications of the whistleblower Frances Haugen, journalists and researchers invested more time in the investigation of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, with the latter social network more and more problems have come to light.
A new report now suggests that drugs are relatively easy for minors to get hold of on Instagram. To do this, the investigators created several accounts that were supposed to simulate teenagers aged 13, 14, 15 and 17. Although Instagram tries to remove hashtags that contain drug names (e.g. #mdma), that hardly seems to be an obstacle.
All the fictional teenagers had to do was search for drug-related terms. After entering “buyxanax”, a suggested account was directly a dealer who brokered the drug to others. Once followed, a short time later the test account received a message with a whole menu full of drugs and drugs, including prices and shipping costs.
Another account that followed a dealer on Instagram was suggested to have another account that sold amphetamines. The researchers warn that minors could move from one drug to the next in this way; the Instagram algorithm is a great help for this.
A spokeswoman for Meta emphasized that they are continuously trying to make Instagram a safe place. Improvements and ongoing efforts should protect all users, but also minors in particular, from dangerous interactions. Nevertheless, many efforts seem to have come nowhere.
One example is the search for #mdma mentioned at the beginning. Although the term is officially blocked by Instagram, the user can still get around and search for #mollymdma. Dangerous content is still available and can be found by slightly adjusting the search. So it is to be hoped that Meta will listen to the feedback, only at the beginning of the week researchers wrote a letter asking the company to be more transparent and thus to press ahead with further investigations.
Via The Verge
