I wrote this paper to highlight the issues surrounding the dangers of children influencers.
Introduction
Grooming and child predation are not new phenomena, as they have been prevalent for millennia. However, with the invention of the internet, these practices have been taken to a new level. Groomers can now access children directly through websites like Facebook, snap chat, and Instagram. Furthermore, with the addition of pay-per-view, sponsorships, and Venmo, the ability to profit from these media has taken off. People market their children on social media, dolling them up to get hundreds or thousands of followers and to earn money. “Understanding Online Grooming” is a research project by J Chiu and E. Quayle from the University of Edinburgh. They note, “What traditionally took place offline involving the physical proximity of perpetrators has shifted dramatically with the internet” (Chiu and Quayle, 2022 p. 1). Researchers A. Iskul and K. Joamets from Tallinn University of Technology reported similar findings, observing that “Groomers already gain easy access to data connected to children, but various social media platforms also provide them with the possibility to get in touch with their future victims directly” (2021). Adults can communicate with children and learn personal information such as their names, birthdays, and even sometimes addresses. The situation for young children gets even worse when it is their parents who are encouraging this behavior.
Predators linger on social media like Tiktok, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram. This observation will focus on the community that is built around children’s Instagram posts, specifically the people who comment. The objective is to draw attention to the inappropriateness of this kind of behavior. Caregivers of children expose their kids to online attention from a very young age and make a profit off prostituting their children. The 2020 Federal Human Trafficking report by the Human Trafficking Institute found that 14% of child sex trafficking victims were recruited on Instagram (p.27). In addition, from the Uk’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children found that in the first three months of the COVID lockdown, there were 1,220 accounts of sexual communication with a child through Instagram (2020). In 2018 they also found that 32% of known grooming instances were found on Instagram (NSPCC). Making Instagram the most commonly used site for grooming.
Examples of offenses making news headlines are frequent in regard to the use and exchange of child pornography on Instagram. In 2015 in San Jose, a high school student got arrested after he got charged with owning an Instagram account that featured nude pictures of underage girls (Salonga and Noguchi, 2015). The FBI and police force often impersonate children online on social media platforms to catch predators. In a private interview with a homeland security agent, a former cop, who used to catch predators online noted in the five years he worked he would catch five to ten predators a month, and they never stopped coming.
Literature review
Three academic studies were used to compare the information found in this observation to previous findings. The first piece of literature used is called “Child Right to Privacy and Social Media- Personal Information Oversharing Parents” by Anna-Maria Iskül and Kristie Joamets. This paper covers the right of children to have privacy on social media. This article notes that due to social media children can gain “status similar to that of a celebrity” (Iskül and Joamets, 2021, p.7). It can be dangerous as the effects can be both negative and unpredictable. They state “the long-term consequences of their actions, including possible psychological impact to the child, identity theft or exposure to online predators” (Iskul and Joamets, 2021, p.8). The second article that was used is “Progression, maintenance, and Feedback of online child sexual grooming: a qualitative analysis of online predators” by Patricia de Santisteban et al. They discuss the manipulation techniques used by predators and report there is an “increase in complaints of sexual solicitation and exploitation of children through the Internet” (Santisteban et al., 2018, p.1). The main strategies they found were deception, bribery, involvement, and aggression. Lastly, “Understanding Online Grooming: An interpretive phenomenological analysis of adolescents’ offline meetings with adult perpetrators”. This paper interviewed six minors who were sexually abused after meeting with a perpetrator they met online. This paper also emphasizes the difference the internet has made in the strategies and ease of pedophiles. “What traditionally took place offline involving the physical proximity of perpetrators has shifted dramatically with the internet, enabling groomers to entrench themselves fully into the victim’s life” (p.1 2022 Chiu and Quayle). All of these articles examine children and the use of the internet by ill-intentioned individuals.
Method
The researcher created a brand new account on Instagram and used it for research purposes. The account had a username but did not include personal photos, biography, or demographics to protect the researcher’s identity. To curate content related to children, two hashtags, #cutekids, and #teenmodel, were followed. The researcher then followed popular children’s accounts, up to 15 in total, using the “explore” tool on Instagram and only interacting with children’s content. Interactions included liking, following, and saving original posts, were done but the researcher did not engage with comments under original photographs. This process continued for fifteen minutes a day for five days. After this time, six different young girl accounts with ten thousand or more followers were selected for the study. One post from each account was chosen, and up to one hundred comments per post were reviewed and sorted into three categories based on previous observations: reportable, nonreportable, and opposition. Bilingual comments were not included due to the potential for translation errors.
Reportables are comments that are sexually explicit. Examples of some comments under this category are “Wish I could open that robe” or “So cute I want to take her innocence, hard”. The next category is unreportable. These comments may have sexual connotations but are not explicitly sexual. Any emoji was put in this category. For example, a bunch of fire emojis is understood in urban usage as “hot” or “sexy”. Other emojis that may be provocative but within the guidelines are the tongue emoji, the wet emoji (ejaculation or women’s arousal fluid), the nut emoji (ejaculation), the eggplant emoji (penis) etc. Lastly, the opposition comments were that either directly oppose the person posting or the content of the comments. Examples of these are “Pedo insta” and “She is cute but she is still a child”. After the comments were sorted the researcher attempted to further delve into the types of people comments explicitly. One difficulty that may arise is that it is often easy to track someone down when they have their full name, but anonymous individuals who post negative comments without profile pictures or actual names can be difficult to trace. If there is a name, it’s just a first name. Due to violating community standards, these posts and profiles are transitory, often disappearing within days.
There is little in the community guidelines about explicit comments. The Instagram community guidelines page notes, “ For safety reasons, there are times when we may remove images that show nude or partially-nude children. Even when this content is shared with good intentions, it could be used by others in unanticipated ways” (Help Center, 2018). This indicates that Instagram has an understanding of the dangers of posting children on their platform. In addition, they have a link to a “Tips for Parents Page”. On this page it says that any “Accounts that represent someone under the age of 13 must clearly state in the account’s bio that the account is managed by a parent or manager. (Help Center, 2018)” One also cannot be a part of Instagram if you’re a convicted sex offender. They also reserve the right to delete anything that they deem puts them under legal fire.
Results
After examining 409 Instagram comments, it was discovered that 92% of them were nonreportable, 7% were reportable, and 1% were opposition. For each reportable profile found, the author delved deeper into the profiles to gather as much information as possible. They used information from their followers, following, posts, comments, and other websites, mainly Facebook. One of the commenters they found was a single policeman from Bucharest who made the inappropriate comment “❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️. Very beautiful girl end sexy. 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥.Kiss you baby..😍😍😍😍😍😍😍. Love you baby.” Another commenter was predatory, with a bio that indicated a desire for a relationship with a girl of any age. “Widower wants a relationship with the right girl at any age, from young upwards. age is only a number all welcome”. The majority of the traceable accounts were men, and reportable accounts were noted following many of the same children. One example is Rdownjunior, who commented on two different posts from two different children. Once the second account was found, two other commenters from the first account liked other pictures from the same girl. Although crude comments were often taken down shortly after they appeared, one out of the six posts studied was taken down a week after it was first found. Even though predators know that certain comments will be monetized, they still choose to post them. In addition, most of these child accounts are aware of the situation and don’t do anything to stop it because of the money that supports the account. Furthermore, despite only liking and following things from the community, the account was put under review three weeks after its creation.
Discussion
The observation confirmed what was noted in the literature review. The internet attracts and even monetizes the exploitation of young children. In addition to the highly likely ill-intentioned men, there were also individuals, mostly women, who called out these inappropriate behaviors or genuinely complimented the children while following their lives. In addition, The prolificity of these kinds of accounts, the provocation of the pictures, the number of families involved, and the fact that this was a choice among caretakers all contributed to the unsettling nature of the situation. After completing the observation there was a personal bias of only the selection of girls believing that they represented the majority of cases. A wider subject pool with a larger assessment of both the comments and the people commenting would be beneficial. we need to take action to protect our children. Society needs to educate themselves and their children about the dangers of social media and monitor their online activity. We need social media platforms to do more to prevent this inappropriate behavior from happening, and we need to hold those who engage in it accountable. We must work together to create a safer online environment for children.
References
Chiu, J., & Quayle, E. (2022). Understanding online grooming: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of adolescents’ offline meetings with adult perpetrators. Child Abuse & Neglect, 128, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105600
Feehs & Currier Wheeler. (2021) Federal Human Trafficking Report, Human Trafficking Institute. https://traffickinginstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/2020-Federal-Human-Trafficking-Report-Low-Res.pdf
Help Center. Instagram. https://help.instagram.com/581066165581870
Instagram most recorded platform used in child grooming crimes during lockdown. National Soceity for the Prevention of Creuelty to Children. https://www.nspcc.org.uk/about-us/news-opinion/2020/instagram-grooming-crimes-children-lockdown/
Iskül, A & Joamets, K (2021). Child Right to Privacy and Social Media. Baltic Journal of Law & Politics, 14(2), 101–122. https://doi.org/10.2478/bjlp-2021-0012
Salonga. R.,& Noguchi, S. (2015). San Jose student cited for child porn after instagram posts of nude classmates surface. Oak Tribune. https://doi.org/%22,
Santisteban, P., Hoyo, J., Alcázar-Córcoles, M, A.,& Gámez-Guadix, M.(2018). Progression, maintenance, and feedback of online child sexual grooming: A qualitative analysis of online predators.Child Abuse & Neglect, 80, 203-215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.03.026
#WakeUpInstagram. National Center on Sexual Exploitation. https://endsexualexploitation.org/instagram/
