X SCORED LOWEST IN USER SAFETY MEASURES FOR CHILDREN
Findings revealed that all six platforms had safety measures in place – such as community guidelines, content moderation, tools for users to manage their own safety and Singapore-based safety resources. However, some did not do as well for user safety measures for children, with X scoring the lowest with two out of five points.
IMDA said in the report that although X claimed it had detected and removed six pieces of child sexual exploitation and abuse material from Singapore, tests uncovered “considerably more cases” during the same period.
“X needs to improve the effectiveness of its efforts in proactively detecting and removing child sexual exploitation and abuse material,” the media authority said.
The report also found that the platform did not effectively enforce its measures to restrict children from viewing adult sexual content. Tests showed that minors could easily find and access explicit material, including hardcore pornography, with simple search words.
In addition, X took action on 54 per cent of harmful content flagged by users, but only took action on the remaining 46 per cent of harmful content when IMDA notified X directly.
It also took 10 days on average to act on reported violations.
“Specifically, X took an average of seven days to take action on sexual content, nine days for suicide and self-harm content, and between 10 to 20 days for other categories of harmful content,” IMDA said.
Responding to the report’s findings, X said that it has “zero tolerance” towards material that features or promotes child sexual exploitation,
X also said it recognised that users between 13 and 17 years old are more vulnerable, and claimed that it has measures in place to ensure minors have a safe and secure experience on the platform.
HOW OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA SITES SCORED
TikTok and Instagram scored full marks for their child safety measures, while YouTube and Facebook scored four out of five and HardwareZone 2.5 out of 5.
“HardwareZone did not have additional measures for children such as accounts with more restrictive default settings and dedicated tools for parents or guardians to manage children’s safety,” the report said.
Although the site’s terms of service prohibit users under 18 years old from accessing the service, its age-gating measures were easily bypassed.
While Facebook and YouTube performed relatively well, the report found instances where children could access age-inappropriate content that should have been restricted under their guidelines.
