Anyone who reads my articles on a regular basis will already be aware that I am not a fan of social media. In fact, in my opinion, social media is a curse on society.
It didn’t start off that way, of course, but it was inevitable that such a platform would end up being abused by the lowlifes out there.
Facebook includes a feature called “Reels” which allows users to share short user-generated videos, and those videos can be monetized via a “Reels Play Bonus” program. It can be a lucrative platform for creators but, unfortunately, it is being abused to the max.
I’ve spent the past couple of months investigating the Reels platform, and my findings are not good. Sure, some of the content is kosher, humorous, and entertaining, but that acceptable content is interspersed with way too many totally inappropriate video clips.
Young Girls Parading: I was amazed at the number of young girls, many of whom look like they are aged between 8-12 years old, parading themselves in a totally erotic manner, in what amounts to a paedophile’s dream.
Being a father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, I find that aspect most upsetting. In an era where paedophilia and the exploitation of children in general is rampant, it’s abhorrent to me that a social media platform would allow this type of content.
More Sexual Misconduct: How about videos of young female gymnasts being touched inappropriately by their mature coaches? What sort of message does that send? Here we have young women dressed in tight-fitting gymnastic outfits being touched inappropriately by their much older coaches and seemingly enjoying it.
If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it was possible for that type of content to pass muster on a social media platform.
Animal Cruelty: Facebook Reels also includes numerous videos depicting animal cruelty which, to me, is contrary to acceptable standards. Maybe serial killers might enjoy that type of content, but I certainly do not, and I suspect it is something most decent people do not want to see.
BOTTOM LINE:
For Meta to allow Facebook Reels to be tainted by the sheer volume of inappropriate content is surely yet another case of the almighty dollar trumping decency.
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Facebook is a cesspool , period.
Whatever little may be good about it does not make up for the garbage truck loads full of what is wrong about it.
Zuckerberg does not care on iota about anyone’s safety , let alone any child’s safety, all he care about is the algorithm and how long he can keep people inside the cesspool.
I’ve looked at Facebook Reels and seen nothing of what you describe. Perhaps my Facebook algorithm is different than yours?
I don’t think the algorithm changes per user Scott, but I’m not 100% sure.
It might depend on how often one views the Reels and for how long. Bearing in mind that I spent many hours over the couple of months viewing as much content as I could.
Yes it’s all very sad. I’m an old person and have only been a member of FB for a bit over a year so I could sell stuff that is cluttering up my garage.
But I do watch some reels at times and it is hard to prevent the algorithm from straying.
The little porno button at the bottom of the picture is always there but I never touch it. Seems to be the only way to keep that type of content at bay.
And if the first video in the thread seems like it might be some vile content I bypass that whole thread of videos.
There was a souch AI content now and it is getting very close to real. Sometimes almost impossible to tell. I try to avoid them as well.
If I dwell on a video it will show me more so I have set types that I watch.
I like trains so it pushes a lot of steam train at me which is ok. And horses tho I wish it would show me Aussie stuff instead of USA content because they are asking me for donations but they are in USA usually not here in Australia.
I would probably donate if it was an Aussie horse being rescued. Unfortunately instead our govt have allowed all apparently unwanted wild horses to be shot unmercifully from choppers.
There is a FB web page for the Brumbies but no donation site . I believe they want to buy more land to put more horses on to keep the bloodlines safe but seems that is a closed affair.
Anyway a lot of reels are crap, no doubt about it.
All I can say is that eventually each person will reach their limit of what they will watch and hopefully then there won’t be enough reasonable content to keep the algorithm in positive mode. It might become subscription then.
Hallelujah !!