- February 26, 2024
- 21 minutes read
A Marketplace of Girl Influencers Managed by Moms and Stalked by Men
This box represents a real photo of a 9-year-old girl in a golden bikini lounging on a towel. The photo was posted on her Instagram account, which is run by adults.
A Marketplace of Girl Influencers Managed by Moms and Stalked by Men
Seeking social media stardom for their underage daughters, mothers post images of them on Instagram. The accounts draw men sexually attracted to children, and they sometimes pay to see more.
By Jennifer Valentino-DeVries and Michael H. Keller
For this investigation, the reporters analyzed 2.1 million Instagram posts, monitored months of online chats of professed pedophiles and interviewed over 100 people, including parents and children.
The ominous messages began arriving in Elissa’s inbox early last year.
“You sell pics of your underage daughter to pedophiles,” read one. “You’re such a naughty sick mom, you’re just as sick as us pedophiles,” read another. “I will make your life hell for you and your daughter.”
Elissa has been running her daughter’s Instagram account since 2020, when the girl was 11 and too young to have her own. Photos show a bright, bubbly girl modeling evening dresses, high-end workout gear and dance leotards. She has more than 100,000 followers, some so enthusiastic about her posts that they pay $9.99 a month for more photos.
Over the years, Elissa has fielded all kinds of criticism and knows full well that some people think she is exploiting her daughter. She has even gotten used to receiving creepy messages, but these — from “Instamodelfan” — were extreme. “I think they’re all pedophiles,” she said of the many online followers obsessed with her daughter and other young girls.
Elissa and her daughter inhabit the world of Instagram influencers whose accounts are managed by their parents. Although the site prohibits children under 13, parents can open so-called mom-run accounts for them, and they can live on even when the girls become teenagers.
But what often starts as a parent’s effort to jump-start a child’s modeling career, or win favors from clothing brands, can quickly descend into a dark underworld dominated by adult men, many of whom openly admit on other platforms to being sexually attracted to children, an investigation by The New York Times found.
These are examples of posts from the mom-run accounts. To protect the identity of minors, their photos will be described rather than shown.
To identify the accounts, first, reporters searched for Instagram hashtags associated with child influencers. The Times then wrote a computer program to surface similar accounts they followed.
Only those with more than 500 followers and multiple images of children in form-fitting or revealing attire were included in the analysis.
Reporters used software from Microsoft and Google to classify how suggestive the images were.
Suggestive posts are more likely to receive “likes” and comments, The Times found. On average, as the accounts gather more followers, they draw a higher proportion of males, according to analysis of data from analytics firms.
🔥🔥🔥
wooowww
Mama mia ❤️❤️🥰💯🤗
Great body😍🔥❤️
Love
😍😍😍😍
Perfect bikini body
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️😋😋😋😍😍😍🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Mmmmmmmmm take that bikini off
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
You’re sooooo hot
❤️🤗💋🌺🌹🌹💯
Y’all are dogs! She’s a child.
👏😍👏😍👏😍👏😍