The Wall Street Journal ran tests using methodology similar to that of Northeastern University computer science professor Laura Edelson. In separate trials between January and June, both the newspaper and Edelson found that, if user accounts set to age 13 watched racy Reels videos, those feeds would begin showing adult sex-content creators in as little as three minutes. Similar tests on TikTok and Snapchat did not produce the same result. (The Wall Street Journal)

Talking point: The report adds to concerns about Instagram’s negative impact on teens, calling into question parent company Meta’s claims that it has restricted the sexually suggestive material minors can view on the platform. Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the experiment “doesn’t match the reality of how teens use Instagram,” and that it has meaningfully reduced the volume of sensitive videos shown to teens in the past few months. But former Meta staffers told the Journal that the company ran similar tests and got comparable results in 2021.