Visit More Than Rehab to speak with a caring team that understands the pressures today’s youth face—and how to turn things around before it’s too late. The “Nutmeg Challenge” encouraged teens to consume large amounts of the spice for a psychedelic effect. Nutmeg in high doses is toxic, leading to confusion, heart palpitations, and lasting damage. Yet the challenge gained traction, often presented as a weird experiment rather than a serious risk. While this information may seem a little scary, having this knowledge will equip you to intervene and be aware of what your kids may be doing on social media.
According to Bradenton police, that’s how a sexual relationship began between a teacher and one of her students. The Apple and Google app stores offer VPNs without revealing they’re owned by Chinese companies. That keeps Americans in the dark about privacy and national security risks. Arms dealers in Houthi-controlled Yemen are openly offering weapons for sale on Elon Musk’s X and Meta-owned WhatsApp.
Viral Content as the “New Normal”
At the time of publishing, the company had only banned one particular account flagged by TTP. Nonetheless, when the group went to check on that profile, it was nonetheless up on Instagram along with all of its violating written content. To make matters worse, when someone follows even just one particular account belonging to an alleged drug seller, Instagram’s recommendation algorithm will recommend the instagram makes it easy for teens to find drugs, report finds user adhere to comparable profiles. Inspite of Instagram’s Group Recommendations prohibiting “buying or providing non-healthcare or pharmaceutical medication,” TTP located several drug sellers work brazenly on the system.
Report finds Instagram makes it easy for teens to find drugs online
In contrast, it took more than double the number of clicks — five — for the teen to log out of Instagram. Instagram is at the center of yet another storm, and this one exposes how easy it is for teen users on the platform to find drugs and also uncovers the extremely ineffective safeguards put in place by the company. This is not the first time that an investigative study has exposed the dark underbelly of a flourishing drugs marketplace on the platform. On multiple occasions, investigations by news organizations, activists, and even law enforcement authorities have revealed just how worryingly easy it was to buy and sell drugs on the platform. Dealers advertise drugs using slang, emojis, QR codes and disappearing messages that help reach customers while evading content moderation tools on the social media platforms, the report said. Often drug sellers are active on multiple social media platforms — advertising their products on Instagram, but listing their WhatApps or Snapchat handles for inquiries — which makes it harder for law enforcement to crack down on the sales.
- This attempt, they say, was more serious than the first, and the prognosis for recovery was worse because they lied to the doctors about which medication they’d taken—another tip they’d learned from posts about self-harm on Instagram.
- Last winter, Megan Macintosh found her 18-year-old son Chase unconscious after she says he experimented with pills.
- The new Tech Transparency Project research highlights the thorny nature of Instagram’s dilemma.
Why Snapchat is Popular For Selling Drugs
The report comes just one day before Adam Mosseri is slated to testify to the Senate about Instagram’s impact on young users. The platform has faced increasing scrutiny in recent weeks following testimony from Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen. According to Haugen, Meta, then Facebook, knew from its own internal research Instagram was harmful to many teens and yet the company disregarded those warnings. TTP’s findings are likely to inform some of the questions the consumer protection subcommittee asks Mosseri on Wednesday. These videos rarely show outcomes like hangovers, arrests, or overdoses. Instead, they promote a filtered, upbeat version of reality that minimizes harm, spreading misinformation about prescription drugs, alcoholic beverages, and even illegal drugs.
Arturo Bejar joined Facebook in 2009, as a senior director responsible for protecting users. Bejar left the company in 2015, before returning in 2019 as a consultant on Instagram’s Well-Being team. During his time away, Bejar’s 14-year-old daughter began using Instagram, and started receiving unwanted sexual comments. Bejar soon realized this was a typical experience on the platform for girls his daughter’s age.
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Teens seeking drugs on Instagram just need money, an account, and an address to get anything they want. Weiser urged social media companies to adopt strong, uniform practices to prevent and respond to illegal drug sales. He also called for a federal agency to oversee social media platforms and legislation that would give the federal government more access to their data. A lot of social media companies, including Meta, TikTok and Snapchat, have policies that ban advertising, buying or selling drugs and some have made efforts to work with law enforcement to address the issue.
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According to a research by the watchdog group Tech Transparency Project (TTP), Instagram is pushing drug-related content to teen accounts. According to Instagram, the prevalence of content viewed on its platform related to drug sales is about 0.05%. When the report’s hypothetical teen followed a page selling Xanax, a suggestion popped up for them to follow a page selling Adderall.
Buying Drugs Online: How Easy Is It?
A report alleges that despite Instagram prohibiting the sale of drugs on its platform, minors have been able to easily find sellers of illegal substances, adding to the growing list of ways that the app endangers young users. Post that, the platform had launched a ‘Take a Break’ and other safety features for teenagers. As per the (TTP) report, the platform allows teen users as young as 13 to find potentially deadly drugs for sale in just two clicks.
- Also, hashtags are designed to promote “awareness” of a public issue, not reveal illegal or secretive online behaviors.
- This feature prevents parents and the authorities from tracking or even seeing the messages.
- If this really is true, then it raises sensitive questions for platforms like Snapchat, Instagram and Yellow, who all have a lot of young users.
- They loved theater, took dance and voice lessons, and had lots of friends.
- The app has drawn particular fire from lawmakers over the past year after the Facebook Papers leak revealed internal research into the app’s affects on young people’s mental health.
‘Everything I Learned About Suicide, I Learned On Instagram.’
One of the obvious questions to be answered is where these young dealers are getting their drugs from. Different emojis are used to advertise when different substances are for sale – the maple leaf being the universal symbol for drugs, diamond or snowflake for cocaine, the capsule for MDMA and needle for heroin. If your teen is already struggling with substance use or mental health challenges, don’t wait.