According to an investigation conducted by the youth-led nonprofit Design It For Us and watchdog Accountable Tech — later corroborated by Washington Post columnist Geoffrey Fowler — the platform continues to surface age-inappropriate, sexually explicit, and generally harmful content despite content control safeguards.
Mention Category: Article
‘It’s time to break free’: Legislators, students rally in Manchester for Age-Appropriate Design
Both Pickarski and Cherry worked collaboratively on the event with the group Design It For Us, a youth-led coalition advocating for safer social media and online platforms for kids, teens, and young adults.
Instagram investigation finds sexual content is served to Teen Accounts
In an investigation by Accountable Tech and Design It For Us, Instagram was found serving sexualized, racist, and harmful content to protected Teen accounts.
Gen Z users tested Instagram Teen Accounts; they got sex posts, body shaming
Four more Gen Z testers, part of a youth organization called Design It For Us, did the same experiment, and all got recommended sexual content. Four of the five got body image and disordered eating content, too, such as a video of a woman saying “skinny is a lifestyle, not a phase.”
Hinsdale native’s youth online safety coalition works with parents, others to push for accountability from social media giants
Zamaan Qureshi, co-chair of Design It For Us, said young people must speak out about social media harms so that authority figures can facilitate change.
Why Meta’s FTC Trial Matters for Keeping Young People Safe Online
The company has failed to protect my generation online, and that’s because it has gotten too big to care.
Are Teenagers Lost in the Void?
Speaking with the youth-led coalition Design It For Us, they stressed that young people are not “helpless” or “in need of help” alone. They emphasized the importance of giving youth more control over their digital lives.
Vermont Lawmakers Weigh Harm, Privacy in Kids Code Bill
Kaitlynn Cherry, a 20-year-old Boston University student, supported the bill on behalf of youth-led coalition Design It For Us. Cherry said she was lucky that her parents taught her about staying safe online, and “ensuring I always read the terms and conditions.” She admitted that kind of support system is not the reality for many minors. “We cannot put the onus on parents like mine to safeguard my generation.”
Free Speech Protections Cover Humans, Not AI, Amici Tell Judge
Amici Encode AI Corp., Design It For Us, and the Young People’s Alliance (collectively,
Encode) filed their brief March 31.
Parents say Snapchat makes it easy for drug dealers to sell to their kids
But Zamaan Qureshi, with the youth advocacy group Design It For Us, says the company needs to make fundamental changes to the app’s features that allow predators to thrive online.
“It’s a great place for young people to connect. But we cannot ignore the detrimental impacts that this application has had for many young people,” he said.