(photo YouTube)
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is now accused of letting people sell images of underage children dressed in bathing suits and so forth through two of the world’s most popular social media services, Facebook and Instagram. This is according to a new report about Meta’s “parent-managed minor accounts.”
Have you ever taken pictures at a social event like a wedding or a family party and then posted them on Facebook for everyone who was there to enjoy? If so, and if you included images of children in the post, then you probably had many requests from parents to take down their children’s pictures. This is because people have legitimate concerns when it comes to the possibility of predators seeing their children online. However, some parents have the opposite idea.
The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal both reported on how Meta staffers compiled data on how a service Meta intended to protect children came to be used to sell images of young girls in bikinis and leotards.
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The “parent-managed minor accounts” were intended to help people protect their children from pedophiles and others who search the web for such images of children. Instead, according to the allegations, the service enabled some to make money off of such images.
Since 2022, Instagram has allowed users to charge as much as $20 for access to “private” accounts. This, in part, has enabled the parents of young children to monetize their children’s pictures.
Meta says that this service allows a parent or guardian can create and manage a Meta account for a child between the ages of 10 and 12 (or the applicable age in your region). “A parent or guardian will need to log into or create their own Meta account and Meta Horizon profile before setting up a child’s account in Family Center,” the company explains.
This allows parents to get around the official Instagram age minimum of 13.
Critics maintain that since parents can make money off of these accounts then they merely allow people an opportunity to exploit their children.
But many people counter that it provides the children with an opportunity to become models.
One New Jersey mother whose account has led to paid modeling jobs for her daughter told the New York Times, “It’s like a little security blanket. She can help pay for college if she does it right.”
“Social media is the way of our future, and I feel like they’ll be behind if they don’t know what’s going on,” the mother added. “You can’t do anything without it now.”
