Lurking among the picturesque landscapes, happy snaps, boutique stores, and restaurants using #Bendigo on Instagram is hardcore porn.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Lisa McDermid said she was confronted by “really graphic, obscene pornography” after uploading some of her own art to the social media network, using the hashtag.
“When I went to look at the hashtag page there was heaps of porn there amongst people’s work and their lives,” she said.
She said porn distributors and producers were hijacking hashtags associated with cities with more than 100,000 tags.
“This brings the porn into seemingly innocuous places,” Ms McDermid said.
Instagram describes itself as a “fun and quirky way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures.”
The social media network, owned by Facebook, is open to people aged 13 years and over and has about 1.6 million Australian users.
More than 80 per cent of posts include a hashtag.
Instagram’s terms of use clearly state posts containing pornographic content is not allowed. But Ms McDermid said it was losing the fight.
“I don’t know why anyone would hashtag their product with a place because it’s just scattered amongst images and videos of sex,” she said.
“I find it incredible a company of that size is not doing more to protect its users.”
She said the corruption of Bendigo’s hashtag was damaging not only for the city’s brand, but to young people accessing the platform.
“We know pornography is hugely damaging to young people’s mental health and their ideas about sex,” the former teacher said.
“The child can click on a #Bendigo link to see what’s happening in their city and see… I won’t go into the details.”
She was concerned by the ease with which users could be directed to profiles containing hundreds of pornographic images and videos.
Ms McDermid urged parents to keep informed about Instagram and their child’s experiences of the network - advice echoed by Millee Rice from headspace Bendigo.
Instagram was contacted for comment.