Study Finds 4 Major Social Apps Fail Child Safety Promises
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 29
Study Finds 4 Major Social Apps Fail Child Safety Promises
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 29
Summary
Researchers at NYU and Northeastern found child-safety tools on Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube were often missing, broken, hard to find or easy for minors and adults to bypass.
Snapchat let adults send message requests to children they did not know and suggested teens befriend adult strangers, while Instagram also prompted teen accounts to connect with unknown men.
TikTok, despite pledging to remove eating-disorder content, recommended teen searches such as "how to pretend to eat your food," according to the study, whose findings the New York Times said it replicated in many cases.
The report lands amid lawsuits that could cost tech companies billions, child social-media bans in several countries for under-16s, and congressional testimony next month from tech leaders on harms to children.
Can social media giants make their platforms safe for kids without dismantling the addictive algorithms that make them profitable?
With dozens of countries banning social media for kids, is the era of the open internet for teenagers coming to an end?
As governments push for age verification, are we creating a new privacy crisis to solve a social media one?
Instagram Under Fire: 2026 Report Reveals Systemic Child Safety Failures and Global Regulatory Response
Overview
A major new report released in June 2026, co-authored by Arturo Béjar and Laura Edelson, reveals that Instagram is failing to protect minors despite its promises. The report is based on a thorough review of teen accounts and Instagram’s safety tools, showing that the platform’s existing features and algorithms are not enough to keep young users safe. Highlighting these critical shortcomings, the report urges both Instagram and regulatory bodies to take concrete actions to fix these systemic issues. This comes as governments are putting more pressure on tech companies to better protect children online.