Ashley Moody, state AGs demand Meta crack down on child ‘exploitation’
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and 26 other attorneys general demanded in a letter to Meta that the tech giant immediately cease monetizing child exploitation and prohibit child-modeling accounts on Instagram.
“The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Meta refused to implement recommended procedures to protect children’s safety on Instagram even after Meta’s own staff determined the platform lacked ‘basic child-safety protections,” the letter said.
Moody was joined by attorney generals from Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and others in demanding action from Meta, which is the parent company of Instagram.
“Our States demand that you, first, immediately cease monetizing child exploitation and
promoting exploitative content to anyone—not least to ‘likely pedophiles,'” the letter said.
According to the letter, Instagram actively promoted content to likely pedophiles from content created by adults looking to profit from exploiting their own children. The report also indicated Meta lacked “basic child protections” even after being warned by staff.
“Two teams inside Meta raised alarms in internal reports’ after finding that ‘hundreds’ of ‘parent-managed minor accounts’ were being used to sell ‘content, often featuring young girls in bikinis and leotards’ to ‘overwhelmingly male’ subscribers who were ‘often overt about sexual interest in the children,” the letter said.
With Instagram being claimed to lack basic safeguards, the Wall Street Journal uncovered Meta putting an automated system in place that pedophiles could simply evade by setting up a new account.
It also found parent-run Instagram accounts promoting “pin-up style photos of children” to Facebook pages “devoted to adult-sex content creators and pregnancy fetishization” with 200,000 followers.
“The time has long passed for Meta to protect children from such dangerous activity,” the letter said. “Meta cannot ignore the appalling consequences of its actions for children both on and off of its platforms.”
Moreover, the letter asserted Instagram had content even banned on OnlyFans, an adult content platform site monetizing in sexual and nonsexual activity.
Moody, in an announcement, called the exploitation “terrifying” and urged Meta to ban child-modeling accounts immediately.
“As Florida’s Attorney General, and as a mother, it is vital that we do all we can to protect our youth online,” Moody said. “Reports show that Meta refuses to implement procedures to protect children’s safety on Instagram—allowing child exploitation and promoting accounts of young girls to those with overt sexual interest in minors.”
During her time in office, Moody has fought Meta on a number of issues, including spearheading an effort to congress to push child-safety initiatives at a hearing with social media CEOs. She also took legal action against the company alleging it “designed and deployed” harmful features on Instagram with the intention to addict children and teens.
