Valuetainment - November 12, 2026


Instagram’s Algorithm Helped Predators Find Young Girls, Former Insider Claims

Facebook Whistleblower SLAMS Trump’s Two-Year Ban Jensen Huang RESIGNS - Carlos Ghosn Reacts to NVIDIA Stock Plunge

Episode Stats


Length

11 minutes

Words per minute

197.72

Word count

2,210

Sentence count

154

Harmful content

Misogyny

5

sentences flagged

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00 For the people that don't know, Adam's role, how much power does Adam have?
00:00:02 Oh, so he's the head of Instagram.
00:00:04 He's the head of Instagram.
00:00:05 The head of Instagram, yeah.
00:00:06 Okay, and so on the findings for Instagram with specifically young teenage girls,
00:00:13 what patterns did they notice?
00:00:15 So I would say there's a range of things that I brought out,
00:00:19 and there's a range of things that we know now from the court cases.
00:00:21 So what initially kicked off a lot of the storm around Instagram and kids
00:00:26 was a series of focus groups that Facebook ran
00:00:31 with teenage girls where they asked them questions
00:00:34 like, when you feel bad about your body?
00:00:35 Does Instagram make you feel worse?
00:00:38 And that's like where the famous stat of like 65%
00:00:40 said it made them feel worse or 35% or whatever.
00:00:42 I remember that.
00:00:43 And what has happened since then
00:00:45 is much, much larger scale studies have been leaked.
00:00:48 So this man named Arturo Behar,
00:00:51 who was the first engineer on safety at Facebook
00:00:54 way, way, way back in the day, like 2009,
00:00:56 2010 he left the company when he had kids like basically retired um came back when his daughter
00:01:02 was 14 so he she and him like to fix up cars together they she made an instagram account
00:01:07 about fixing up cars and when he looked this guy yeah or to obey her he's wonderful um uh when he
00:01:14 came back to work for facebook so he she she started posting on instagram about the cars
00:01:19 he looked at the comments and it was a bunch of middle-aged men talking about his 14 year girl's
00:01:23 body. And he's like, how is this possible? She's talking about this car she's fixing up. How is
00:01:28 she getting sexually harassed? Why is she getting sent lewd photos that she didn't ask for? 1.00
00:01:33 They must not know. That was his immediate response. When I was at Facebook, they cared
00:01:38 about safety. They must just not know this is a problem. So he returned to Instagram around the
00:01:43 time that I was coming forward as a whistleblower. So he joined maybe a year before I came forward as
00:01:48 a whistleblower. And at the same time that Facebook was making these public statements
00:01:52 and saying this is not what's happening to kids on the platform.
00:01:55 He was running surveys of 100,000 children on the platform.
00:01:58 So this is 13 to 15 years.
00:01:59 As an insider.
00:02:00 As an insider.
00:02:01 Yeah, he's running the studies right at the same time.
00:02:03 And the results that are coming back are things like one in eight girls
00:02:06 between the ages of 13 and 15.
00:02:08 Let's be honest, kids lie about their age on Instagram.
00:02:10 So this is like 10-year-olds.
00:02:11 One in eight girls between 13 and 15 said they received an unwanted sexual message
00:02:16 in the last seven days.
00:02:19 So he's sitting there being like, wait, they're saying publicly nothing's wrong.
00:02:22 and I'm asking 100,000 children.
00:02:25 So I'm getting real responses on like,
00:02:26 are you getting bullied?
00:02:27 Are you seeing violence?
00:02:29 Has violence been committed against you?
00:02:30 Like he's seeing the raw data
00:02:33 and then the company's saying publicly nothing is wrong.
00:02:35 And that's why he came forward as a whistleblower.
00:02:37 How much of that investigation
00:02:38 did you guys on the inside,
00:02:40 like the workers, the executives,
00:02:43 how did they handle Instagram with their own daughters?
00:02:47 Did they just say, 1.00
00:02:48 you can't, my daughter doesn't,
00:02:49 my daughter's not on Instagram.
00:02:50 What did they do with their personal lives?
00:02:52 So at the time that I came forward, which is like 2021,
00:02:55 so this is, I think, part of the systemic problem of Instagram and Facebook,
00:02:58 which is in Silicon Valley, people have kids a little bit older.
00:03:01 Facebook was founded by a bunch of 19- and 20-year-olds.
00:03:04 When you add those two facts together,
00:03:05 it means that even at the time that I left the company, which is 2021,
00:03:09 Mark's eldest child was nine.
00:03:11 Adam and Sarah, head of Instagram's oldest child, was nine.
00:03:14 So they could say publicly, like seriously,
00:03:17 my children are not on these products because they're not old enough.
00:03:19 ignoring the fact that like 30 percent of seven to nine-year-olds are on social media
00:03:24 um today adam sari says my kid is on social media because she's like i don't know 14 now
00:03:30 right i don't know how they use the products with their own kids do they put time caps do they look
00:03:34 at their kids phones do they um use other kinds of of software to supervise their kids on on on
00:03:41 their devices i don't know how much of the onus do you put curious for you as an insider how much
00:03:47 of the onus do you put on parents versus Facebook, the platform?
00:03:51 So one of the really big challenges with these apps is I think you can safely have kids on
00:03:58 social media, but it requires a level of oversight from parents that not all parents have the
00:04:03 time or energy to execute or technical sophistication, right?
00:04:08 It's things like, you know, you have to sit down with your kid at least once a week and
00:04:11 look at their feed with them and talk to them about it, right?
00:04:14 And that's an awkward conversation.
00:04:15 Like, how many 14-year-olds want to show their mom their Instagram feed?
00:04:18 None of them.
00:04:19 None of them.
00:04:20 Right?
00:04:20 Or you have to do things like you can't let your kid charge their phone in their bedroom at night because they're not going to go to bed.
00:04:25 Jonathan Haidt talks about this in the action generation.
00:04:27 Huge, huge, huge, huge, huge lever you have.
00:04:31 But that means you have to fight with your kid every night to make sure their phone stays in your room to charge.
00:04:34 So you have a two-year-old daughter.
00:04:36 When she's 14, are you going to let her be on Instagram?
00:04:39 I'm assuming Instagram will not be Instagram in 12 years, given the rate of how things are changing.
00:04:45 Will she be on the internet?
00:04:47 She'll almost certainly be on the internet.
00:04:49 I'm assuming even in the next five years,
00:04:51 we are probably going to have like AIs
00:04:53 that ride along with kids in a much more active way.
00:04:57 And I think that is going to really change
00:05:00 how we view children on the internet.
00:05:03 If she was 14 today, would you let her be on Instagram?
00:05:05 No, I would not let her be on Instagram.
00:05:07 When would you let her be on Instagram?
00:05:09 Somewhere between 14 and 16.
00:05:11 I'd have to know the kid.
00:05:12 I don't know if I'm even doing it.
00:05:13 My oldest son is 14, about to be 15.
00:05:15 He's still not on Instagram.
00:05:16 To give you context on why it's so important for parents
00:05:21 to have really awkward conversations with their kids about these technologies
00:05:24 is the things that kids do online, they don't stay online.
00:05:29 And one of the things that is happening at higher and higher rates is sextortion.
00:05:34 So 14-year-old boys get messaged by supposedly very gorgeous women
00:05:39 and lured into situations that...
00:05:44 I'm sure you're dangling and then boom, next thing's cool.
00:05:46 There was a movie that did this, Disconnected.
00:05:48 I don't know if you...
00:05:49 I haven't seen it, no.
00:05:50 Can you type in disconnect or disconnected?
00:05:53 You know who's in it?
00:05:54 The guy from...
00:05:55 That's the one, Disconnect.
00:05:57 Disconnect movie is the sister walks into the room,
00:06:01 the brothers is about to commit suicide
00:06:03 because a girl he's in love with in school,
00:06:07 the three bullies that were bullying him,
00:06:09 send a picture of her 0.98
00:06:11 as if it's her profile
00:06:12 and they send a private part picture 0.50
00:06:14 of just any girl naked
00:06:16 without the face on her
00:06:17 and says,
00:06:18 if I send you mine,
00:06:18 will you send me yours?
00:06:19 He sent his with him in the picture.
00:06:21 The boys released it in school the next day
00:06:23 and then he came in wanting to commit suicide
00:06:26 and the sister found him.
00:06:27 It's terrifying.
00:06:28 But that depiction in that movie,
00:06:30 I think every parent needs to watch this movie.
00:06:33 So to me, my challenge becomes...
00:06:35 And in One Step Worse,
00:06:36 now they're doing it with AI
00:06:37 so that your kid might not even expose himself
00:06:40 and they'll generate a photo and say,
00:06:41 hey, see this photo with your face on it
00:06:43 where you're doing something that seems...
00:06:44 What do you do about that?
00:06:45 I think one of the questions is
00:06:48 who should have access to your children, right?
00:06:51 One of the things that has been a big change
00:06:53 that has happened as a result of the kids' lawsuit
00:06:55 is one of the things that came out from...
00:06:59 And this is really sad.
00:07:00 One of the things that came out
00:07:01 as a result of the kids' lawsuits
00:07:02 was when we talk about the algorithm on Instagram,
00:07:04 there's not one algorithm.
00:07:06 There's a bunch of algorithms.
00:07:07 So yes, there's one that picks out your posts, but there's also one that suggests hashtags
00:07:11 to you, and there's one that suggests people to you, amongst other things that it suggests.
00:07:15 The one that suggests people to you, one of the ways it prioritizes who it suggests to
00:07:21 you is based on what friends you've accepted from that list before.
00:07:25 So if you are a 55-year-old guy who likes 13-year-old girls, the algorithm will continue
00:07:31 to show you more 13-year-old girls.
00:07:33 And it will show you not just 13-year-old girls, it will show you 13-year-old girls
00:07:35 who actually accept friend requests from 55-year-old guys.
00:07:38 Stop it.
00:07:38 Yes, because those are the highest probability.
00:07:40 Till today?
00:07:40 So now it doesn't because of the lawsuit.
00:07:43 So now kids are opted into private accounts by default.
00:07:46 Oh, my God.
00:07:47 Because should your kid get shown to some random stranger?
00:07:50 Till when was it doing that?
00:07:52 Depends where in the world you were.
00:07:55 It's one of these questions of Facebook complies with local laws.
00:07:58 So if you have a country that says kids get private accounts,
00:08:01 you have more private situations.
00:08:04 I think we can thank the Australians because the first beginning to close down those holes
00:08:09 didn't happen until Australia threatened to ban social media for under-16s.
00:08:12 And that's only like two years ago.
00:08:14 What did Florida do?
00:08:15 Florida made a decision.
00:08:16 DeSantis said something about under-16, you can't be on social media.
00:08:20 Can you find out?
00:08:21 I think they appealed it.
00:08:22 Who appealed it? 0.96
00:08:23 A meta did.
00:08:24 And they won?
00:08:24 I don't know.
00:08:25 I don't know where it is in the current state law.
00:08:27 Florida state law. 0.99
00:08:29 Under-14 are banned from creating, holding social media.
00:08:34 14 to 15 teens are allowed to have accounts
00:08:36 only with parental consent
00:08:38 and targeted platform law applies to social media.
00:08:41 That's awesome.
00:08:42 Yeah, Florida.
00:08:42 Santa's drove this.
00:08:43 So you support this.
00:08:45 So I believe we can design social media
00:08:47 that is good for kids.
00:08:49 We do not have a system of incentives in place right now
00:08:51 that encourages companies like Instagram
00:08:53 to actually comply.
00:08:54 Can I ask you a weird question?
00:08:55 Who do you think politically
00:08:58 protects young teenage girls more, 0.91
00:09:02 conservatives or liberals?
00:09:04 Oh, great question.
00:09:06 Because even Jonathan Hyde was asked this question.
00:09:09 I wonder what you say about this.
00:09:11 Well, right now, it's kind of wild.
00:09:13 So, like, for example, the Kids Online Safety Act is the main piece of legislation at the federal level that is in the Senate.
00:09:19 You know, it has over 75 co-signers.
00:09:21 So it's like both Republicans and Democrats are supporting it, and yet it gets stuck in the House, right?
00:09:27 And I think so far we have seen more right-leaning states be willing to step up and take action.
00:09:33 So I think Utah, Florida, and Texas have all done things.
00:09:37 So when you look at just the legislative history, definitely the right has done more to protect kids online than the left.
00:09:43 I think they understand better that kids, that the Internet is not an unadulterated, like a pure good.
00:09:54 There are lots of dark quarters to the Internet.
00:09:56 And one thing that's really complicated is, like I said before, I don't believe we should just exclude children from the Internet.
00:10:02 At the same time, we have not seen these tech companies being willing to do the changes they need to do to make these places safe for kids.
00:10:10 So when you have a conflict like that, are you more biased towards action or are you more biased towards continuing to negotiate with these companies?
00:10:18 And I think states like Florida have said, we're not going to negotiate anymore.
00:10:22 We're just going to put our foot down.
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