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Have You Heard of Instagram‘s Growing ’Instasex’ Problem?
Whether it be of landscapes, a group of friends or your latest meal, taking snapshots and applying a vintage-style filter has become exceedingly popular with Instagram. But these G and PG images aren‘t all that’s being posted by the more than 80 million iPhone and Android owners using the photo-sharing app — some are rated X.
The app, which was purchased by Facebook earlier this year for $1 billion, has already come under fire for hosting “thinspiration” photos, which promotes unhealthy eating disorders and body images. In April, the site instituted a ban on such images wanting to provide a ”positive and healthy community.”
But there are more nefarious tags still being used and treated with Instagram’s trademark filters that “transform [a photo's] look and feel.” The Huffington Post reports some photos on the site being labeled with “sextagram,” “instaporn,” “handbra,” and “instasex.” In fact, while “latte” may have 135,000 photos associated with it, “instasex” has 201,000.
Whether it be of landscapes, a group of friends or your latest meal, taking snapshots and applying a vintage-style filter has become exceedingly popular with Instagram. But these G and PG images aren‘t all that’s being posted by the more than 80 million iPhone and Android owners using the photo-sharing app — some are rated X.
The app, which was purchased by Facebook earlier this year for $1 billion, has already come under fire for hosting “thinspiration” photos, which promotes unhealthy eating disorders and body images. In April, the site instituted a ban on such images wanting to provide a ”positive and healthy community.”
But there are more nefarious tags still being used and treated with Instagram’s trademark filters that “transform [a photo's] look and feel.” The Huffington Post reports some photos on the site being labeled with “sextagram,” “instaporn,” “handbra,” and “instasex.” In fact, while “latte” may have 135,000 photos associated with it, “instasex” has 201,000.
“Instagram has moved from a niche thing to something people have heard about, and that means it has a critical mass. Whenever you have a critical mass on the internet, the sex shows up,” said Senft, a professor specializing in global media at New York University’s Department of Liberal Studies. “If something bills itself as non-pornographic then becomes that way, to me it’s a sign that it’s reached the public knowledge-base, and now it’s solidly there.”