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Simfin

online safety and digital citizenship specialist

Adults who work with Young People News

27 February 2026

Instagram's parent company, Meta, is investigating AI-generated social media accounts that sexualise disabled people appearing on its platform.

It comes after the BBC flagged dozens of profiles showing AI-generated images of women with disabilities, including Down's syndrome or vitiligo.

Some profiles post fake images and videos of women with missing limbs, visible scarring or in wheelchairs. Many are in sexualised positions, wearing revealing clothing.

One profile, claiming to be conjoined twins, has about 400,000 followers, despite only joining Instagram in December 2025.

Kamran Mallick, chief executive of Disability Rights UK, said the emergence of "accounts that fetishise, mock, or monetise the identities of disabled people is nothing short of horrific".

 

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26 February 2026

Parents using Instagram's child supervision tools will soon receive alerts if their teen repeatedly searches for suicide or self-harm related terms on the platform.

It is the first time parent company Meta will proactively alert parents to searches by their child on Instagram for harmful material, rather than block searches and direct users to external help.

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24 February 2026

Police said the teenager, who was 15 at the time he was arrested, was part of extreme right-wing online chat groups on platforms such as Telegram, Snapchat, TikTok and Wire.

Det Ch Supt James Dunkerley, head of Counter Terrorism Policing North East, said: "This case provides a stark reminder around the dangers of extreme content online that is accessible to the public and how individuals can be drawn into serious offending."

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21 February 2026

These fake videos have become part of a much wider trend - where online influencers and content creators portray Western cities such as London, Manchester, San Francisco or New York as overrun with immigrants and crime.

It has been dubbed "decline porn". These narratives - often exaggerated or fabricated, some obviously satirical - are fuelling anger and racist backlash among some viewers who take them at face value.

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19 February 2026

Tech platforms would have to remove intimate images which have been shared without consent within 48 hours, under a proposed UK law.

The government said tackling intimate image abuse should be treated with the same severity as child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and terrorist content.

Failure to abide by the rules could result in companies being fined up to 10% of their global sales or have their services blocked in the UK.

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