Instagram safety tools failing to protect young people, say researchers

Children are still at risk from online harm on Instagram despite the introduction of extra safety protocols, according to research led by a whistleblower.

- Rachel Hall

Arturo Béjar, a former senior engineer at Meta, which owns Instagram, found that 64% of the new safety tools on the social media site were ineffective.

Meta, which also owns Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads, introduced mandatory teenager accounts on Instagram a year ago amid growing regulatory and media pressure to tackle online harm.

Béjar, who testified against Meta before the US Congress in 2023, said the company had made promises about how teenager accounts would protect young people from “sensitive or harmful content, inappropriate contact, harmful interactions” and give control over use.

However, he said the tools were mostly “ineffective, unmaintained, quietly changed or removed”.

Béjar’s research was carried out with New York University and Northeastern University academics as well as the UK’s Molly Rose Foundation and other groups.