FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 4, 2025

Contact: Michael Clauw, mclauw@campaignforaccountability.org, 202.780.5750

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A 15-year-old boy using an “Instagram Teen Account,” which is supposed to protect young users from inappropriate content, can still find brutal fighting videos in just a few clicks without encountering any resistance from the platform, according to a new report from the Tech Transparency Project (TTP).

Using a test account, TTP examined the results when a hypothetical 15-year-old searched for “fight” on Instagram. The platform recommended the hashtag #fight, which led to an array of videos showing violent scenes, including kids punching each other, men engaged in bloody street fighting, and dogs tearing at each other’s throats.

This undermines promises by Instagram’s parent company Meta that 13- to 17-year olds are automatically placed into the most restrictive Instagram settings that limit “sensitive content” including “people fighting.”

Read TTP’s report.

“Worse than simply letting it ‘slip through,’ this is a case of Meta actually pushing teens toward a specific type of content that it identified as harmful,” said Campaign for Accountability Executive Director Michelle Kuppersmith. “These findings are further proof that Meta platforms fail to keep children safe—even when parents use their designated child safety features.”

The Instagram Teen Accounts are a centerpiece of Meta’s efforts to show it is committed to child safety. The company has heavily promoted the teen safeguards as it comes under growing legislative and legal pressure over its impact on children’s mental health.

As TTP noted in an August 26 report about Meta’s influence efforts around kids and social media, the Meta-funded National PTA has also been promoting the Instagram Teen Accounts at events across the country.

But TTP found that Instagram did not apply the promised restrictions to hashtags, which are a key way that people discover content on the platform, raising questions about how much the Instagram Teen Accounts actually protect kids.

“If Meta is going to keep asking parents to trust its platforms with their children’s safety, it’s unacceptable for the company to allow such a glaring loophole,” Kuppersmith added.

Campaign for Accountability is a nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog organization that uses research, litigation, and aggressive communications to expose misconduct and malfeasance in public life and hold those who act at the expense of the public good accountable for their actions.