Meta Users Survey Found 19% of Young Teens on Instagram Report Seeing Unwanted Nude Images

Washington: According to the court, approximately 1 in 5 users aged between 13 and 15 told Meta that they had seen “nudity or sexually explicit images” on Instagram but did not want to see them.

The document, made public on Friday as part of a federal lawsuit in California and reviewed by Reuters, includes portions of Instagram chief Adam Mosseri’s March 2025 deposition.

In another document made public as part of the lawsuit, a Meta researcher recommends the company focus on younger users because they act as “catalysts” for households and influence how their younger siblings and parents use the app. The document is dated January 20, 2021.

“If we want to acquire (and retain) new users, we need to recognize a young person’s influence within the home to achieve this,” the researcher said in the note.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is facing allegations from global leaders that the company’s products are harming young users. Thousands of lawsuits filed in federal and state courts across the United States accuse the company of designing addictive products and fueling a mental health crisis for minors.

Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the statistic about sexually explicit images came from a 2021 survey of Instagram users about their experiences on the platform, not from its own review of the posts.

Meta did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on the researcher’s note.

About 8% of users ages 13-15 said they had “seen someone harm themselves or threaten to do so on Instagram” in the 2021 survey, Mosseri said.

The company said it would remove images and videos “containing nudity or explicit sexual activity, including those generated by artificial intelligence,” for younger users in late 2025, with exceptions deemed medical and educational content.

“We are proud of the progress we have made and are always striving to do better,” Stone said.

In his statement, Mosseri said that most of the sexually explicit images were sent through private messages between users and that Meta had to take users’ privacy into account when reviewing them.

“A lot of people don’t want us to read their messages,” he said.