{"id":1208141,"date":"2023-12-01T14:53:57","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T19:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1208141"},"modified":"2023-12-01T14:53:57","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T19:53:57","slug":"metas-apps-are-still-promoting-child-predation-content-report-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1208141","title":{"rendered":"Meta's apps are still promoting child predation content, report finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meta is failing to stop vast networks of people using its platform to promote child abuse content, a new report<\/ins><\/a> in The Wall Street Journal <\/em>says, citing numerous disturbing examples of child exploitation it uncovered on Facebook and Instagram. The report, which comes as Meta faces renewed pressure over its handling of children\u2019s safety, has prompted fresh scrutiny from European Union regulators.<\/p>\n

In the report, The Wall Street Journal<\/em> detailed tests it conducted with the Canadian Centre for Child Protection showing how Meta\u2019s recommendations can suggest Facebook Groups, Instagram hashtags and other accounts that are used to promote and share child exploitation material. According to their tests, Meta was slow to respond to reports about such content, and its own algorithms often made it easier for people to connect with abuse content and others interested in it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For example, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection told the paper a \u201cnetwork of Instagram accounts with as many as 10 million followers each has continued to livestream videos of child sex abuse months after it was reported to the company.” In another disturbing example, Meta initially declined to take action on a user report about a public-facing Facebook Group called \u201cIncest.\u201d The group was eventually taken down, along with other similar communities.<\/p>\n

In a lengthy update<\/ins><\/a> on its website, Meta said that \u201cpredators are determined criminals who test app, website and platform defenses,\u201d and that it had improved many of its internal systems to restrict \u201cpotentially suspicious adults.\u201d The company said it had \u201cexpanded the existing list of child safety related terms, phrases and emojis for our systems to find\u201d and had employed machine learning to uncover new search terms that could be potentially exploited by child predators.<\/p>\n

The company said it\u2019s using technology to identify \u201cpotentially suspicious adults\u201d in order to prevent them from connecting with each other, including in Facebook Groups, and from seeing each other\u2019s content in recommendations. Meta also told The Wall Street Journal <\/em>it \u201chas begun disabling individual accounts that score above a certain threshold of suspicious behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

The social network is facing a growing backlash over its handling of child safety. The Wall Street Journal<\/em> also recently reported that Instagram Reels recommendations<\/ins><\/a> are serving content aimed at people who \u201cmight have a prurient interest in children.\u201d Dozens of states recently sued<\/ins><\/a> Meta for allegedly harming the mental health of its youngest users, and failing to keep children younger than 13<\/ins><\/a> off its apps. Mark Zuckerberg will no doubt face intense questions about these allegations next month<\/ins><\/a> when he appears at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing focused on child safety online. His counterparts from TikTok, Snap, X and Discord are also slated to testify.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Meta is also facing new pressure from regulators abroad. European Union officials are using a new law to probe<\/ins><\/a> the company\u2019s handling of child abuse material, following The Journal\u2019s<\/em> report. The company has been given a December 22 deadline<\/ins><\/a> to turn over data to the bloc.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/metas-apps-are-still-promoting-child-predation-content-report-finds-195357362.html?src=rss
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\nSource: Engadget – Meta’s apps are still promoting child predation content, report finds<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meta is failing to stop vast networks of people using its platform to promote child abuse content, a new report in The Wall Street Journal says, citing numerous disturbing examples of child exploitation it uncovered on Facebook and Instagram. The … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99,110],"tags":[98],"class_list":["post-1208141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-engadget","category-unfiltered-rss","tag-engadget"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1208141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1208141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1208141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1208141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}