GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The most popular app among children ages 8 to 18 years old can also easily expose them to pornography.
Instagram currently has about 700 million users, with more people joining every day. With more users comes more content and a higher risk of adult content, known as “Instaporn.”
“I personally thought it was where you just shared pictures with friends; I didn’t understand that you could, without knowing, search things and porn pops up,” said a mother who wished to remain anonymous.
With a few simple, innocent taps on your Instagram app, pornography can appear right below your fingertips.
“When I talk to parents, I tell them in less than five seconds, if I know how…I can be on streaming pornography on Instagram, in five simple clicks,” said Chris McKenna, founder of Protect Young Eyes.
Parents need only tap on the magnifying glass on the app’s bottom menu bar and search a word like “hot.”
“Profiles that come up like hot lesbian TV, yoga chicks in pants, you know, nudes and hot sexy babes; I mean all I did was type in the word ‘hot,’” explained McKenna.
The adult content that may come up during an innocuous search is not something you can easily filter out.
“Mom or dad you may never know they’ve (their children) searched for the word because there are no parental controls. That’s the risk,” said McKenna.
McKenna’s advice to parents is to keep under age 16 children off Instagram. But he says there are other options, like scanning your child’s account and using a service like Bark, which monitors app activity.
Learn more tips to protect your children from emerging social media dangers by visiting Protect Young Eyes’ website.