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Investigations into \u201cchild influencer\u201d accounts on Facebook and Instagram have found that Meta is knowingly allowing parents who sexually exploit their children for financial gain on the platform \u2014 and in some cases, using Meta\u2019s paid subscription tools<\/a> to do so.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n According to separate reports published by The New York Times<\/em><\/a> and The Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a> on Thursday, Facebook and Instagram have become a potentially lucrative endeavor for parents who run social media accounts for children \u2014 mostly girls \u2014 who aren\u2019t old enough to meet the platforms\u2019 minimum 13-year-old age requirements. Several of the \u201cparent-managed minor accounts\u201d investigated sold materials to their large audiences of adult men, including photos of their children in revealing attire, exclusive chat sessions, and their children\u2019s used leotards and cheer outfits.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Meta staffers found that some parents were knowingly catering content of their children to pedophiles <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n According to The Wall Street Journal<\/em>, while these parent-run accounts don\u2019t feature illegal content or nudity, staff at Meta discovered that some parents were knowingly producing material of their children that pedophiles would find sexually gratifying. This included parents having sexually charged conversations about their own children and making them interact with sexual messages sent by subscribers. <\/em>Meta staff also were allegedly aware that the company\u2019s algorithms promoted subscriptions for accounts that feature child models to suspected pedophiles and that some parents offered additional content of their children on other platforms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Verge<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Because of the way Meta\u2019s social media algorithms work, even accounts that aren\u2019t intentionally insidious \u2014 like those for child models, athletes, and performers \u2014 stand to benefit from gaining large audiences of adult men. The Times<\/em> reports that 5,000 accounts it examined had 32 million connections to male followers. Accounts with high follower counts have their visibility boosted by Instagram, which can lead to discounts and financial incentives from brands. Some companies pay child influencers $3,000 for a single post, and six-figure incomes can be made through monthly subscriptions, according to the Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Recommendations made by Meta staff to tackle the issue \u2014 such as requiring accounts that sold child-focused subscriptions to register themselves for monitoring or banning subscriptions to such accounts entirely \u2014 were apparently not pursued by the company. Instead, Meta focused on building an automated system for preventing likely pedophiles from subscribing to parent-run accounts, though this proved to be unreliable and easily evaded by creating a new account, says the Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Meta\u2019s own moderation tools restricted parents who blocked too many accounts from blocking suspected predators<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n While it was building this system, Meta expanded its subscription program and \u201cgifts\u201d tipping feature, arguing that such programs are well monitored. The Journal<\/em> also found that this gifting tool has been misused and that efforts made by some parents to manage who was interacting with their children were thwarted by Meta\u2019s own moderation tools \u2014 with accounts that blocked too many followers in a day having their ability to block accounts restricted. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n For comparison, TikTok told the Journal<\/em> that it bans the sale of underage modeling content on TikTok marketplace and through its creator monetization services. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n