Instagram 'most important platform' for connecting child pornography distributors to buyers: report

Child pornography distributors are using Instagram to commission and sell child pornography as the purveyors use the social media network's algorithms and hashtags to promote content, according to a new report from the Stanford Internet Observatory.
 

"Instagram is currently the most important platform" for networks of child pornography distributors, as the platform has "features that help connect buyers and sellers," the report, which was released Tuesday, states in one of its key takeaways.

"Instagram appears to have a particularly severe problem" with "Self-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material" being sold, the report also states. This type of pornography is illegal to possess and distribute, but children, often teenagers, voluntarily share these images with each other.