Social media accounts owned by 13-year-old girls amassed hundreds of messages from “suspicious” accounts in the span of a few weeks, receiving explicit images, sexual messages and requests for personal information.
The researchers set up four fake accounts, using an AI-generated picture of a girl or a generic avatar, and indicating whether a parent managed the account or not.
In two months, the accounts received 268 friend requests, likes, comments and messages from 136 accounts. More than two-thirds of the accounts contacting the girls were assessed as “suspicious”, such as adult accounts which only connected with children, accounts which contained or sent harmful or illegal content, such as porn or violence, and accounts which sent inappropriate or sexual messages and comments to the girls’ accounts.
Researchers are unable to name the platform due to the study’s ethics approval.
The account with a photo and no parental supervision declaration received the most number of interactions, with 104 interactions from suspicious accounts. The account with a photo and parental supervision declaration was the next most popular, followed by the account with an avatar and no parental supervision declaration. These results were the same for interactions from non-suspicious accounts.
Worryingly, the site also suggested the girl’s accounts connect with nearly three dozen suspicious accounts. Almost half of all accounts suggested by the site’s algorithm, as opposed to mutual friends or other new users, were suspicious.
The social media site has since introduced restrictions for users under 16, defaulting the accounts to private and limiting who they can receive messages from.
The latest eSafety transparency report released last week found tech giants including Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft were making minimal efforts to tackle online child sexual abuse.
In December, Australia will introduce a world-first social media ban for children under the age of 16. An eSafety survey found 96 per cent of children aged 10 to 15 used at least one social media platform, and about 70 per cent had encountered harmful content.