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The Washington Post Reveals Social Media Tips to Avoid Sexual Content

Photo by Alexander Shatov via Unsplash

The Washington Post Reveals Social Media Tips to Avoid Sexual Content

By Movieguide® Staff

On The Washington Post instagram page, the news outlet offered followers tips on how to avoid seeing sexual content on apps like Instagram and TikTok.

“If your TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts or Snapchat feeds are showing you content you don’t want to see, there are some simple — if time-sucking — ways to try to fix it,” The Washington Post wrote.

Their tips read:

1. Say you’re not interested: Each app has a way to say you’re not interested or to dislike a video, either by pressing and holding (TikTok) selecting the More options (three dots on Instagram and Snapchat) or hitting dislike (YouTube).

2. Seek out content you do like: Look up hashtags and keywords for your core interests, follow those creators and read or engage in the comments.

3. Train yourself to look away: To decide what to show you, the apps take note of how long you view a video, whether you read the comments, and if you click on the creator’s profile. Scroll away quickly, consistently.

4. Give it time: To get your feeds right where you want them, you’ll need to invest time — days or weeks — and along the way probably see videos that you don’t want.

Unfortunately, many popular social media apps will populate the feeds of users with sexual content by default, including users who are under the age of 18.

This leaves many parents wondering how they can best protect their children on social media.

Movieguide® previously reported:

Major Social Media companies like Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok continue to raise red flags for concerned parents, teachers, and now even state legislators, who claim that the platforms jeopardize the safety and health of children.

TikTok, which skyrocketed to over 1 billion users worldwide over the pandemic and on, faces various lawsuits over harmful business practices that have resulted in the abuse and death of children.

Other apps like Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter have faced lawsuits and backlash for drug-related crimes having free reign on their app and monetizing sexual content—each making the “Dirty Dozen List” put together by the National Center of Sexual Exploitation.

As minors flock to social media, many looking for a way to stay connected with friends, they find themselves in a world of crime.

Movieguide®’s founder and CEO Dr. Ted Baehr, writes on media literacy and discernment in his books, “The Media-Wise Family” and “The Culture-Wise Family.”

As with movies, Dr. Baehr believes that teaching children to think critically about the content they consume is a better long-term plan than sheltering them from every movie, TV show, and social media app to come out.

How can we celebrate the good, the true, and the beautiful while avoiding immorality?

Primarily, it takes diligent, God-centered application of God’s word by parents; and it starts in the home.

Proverbs 22:6 ESV – “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”


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