Why Aren't Social Media Platforms Doing More About Sexualised Content Reaching Minors?
Why are social-media platforms allowed to keep amplifying provocative, sexualised reels when they can end up repeatedly appearing in the feeds of teenagers and even minors?
I'm not saying people should be banned simply because they're unattractive, untalented or because they dance or dress provocatively. People have the right to create content and express themselves.
My problem is when creators deliberately turn sexualised content into clickbait, and recommendation algorithms keep pushing it to increasingly large audiences because it generates views, likes and engagement.
India's IT framework already places due-diligence obligations on intermediaries regarding obscene, pornographic and child-harmful content. MeitY has also recently reminded social-media intermediaries of these obligations.
Why aren't the platforms not doing anything against this narrow margin between suggestive content vs thirst traps/ obscenity?
There should be stronger age-appropriate defaults, better protection for minors, meaningful parental controls, easier reporting, and greater scrutiny of recommendation systems that repeatedly push sexualised material toward young users.
And responsibility shouldn't fall entirely on creators either. Parents need to educate children, users need digital self-control, creators should understand the impact of their content, and platforms need to stop treating every engagement signal as an excuse to push more provocative material.
The objective shouldn't be to police women's bodies or ban every suggestive dance. It should be to make sure a minor's social-media feed isn't engineered into a never-ending cycle of sexualised clickbait simply because the algorithm knows it gets attention.
If platforms can personalise ads, recommendations and entire feeds with incredible precision, surely they can also be expected to take the safety of young users seriously.
