Anonymous online student gossip has been a problem for years.
The Streetchat app and JuicyCampus website, both now defunct, allowed users to share unchecked, malicious rumors about their peers. The anonymous messaging app Yik Yak had similar features until it shut down in 2017, following complaints of bullying and harassment. Yik Yak relaunched last year with new "community guardrails" to prevent abuse and public humiliation.
But online gossip shared by students never went away. Instead, rumor-spreading tactics went mainstream on social media, particularly on Instagram through "secrets," "tea," and "confessions" accounts. Anonymous students start an account inviting their classmates to share what they know. The results can be devastating for students targeted by false or cruel claims about their sexuality, gender identity, home life, physical appearance, disabilities, and other sensitive subjects. Their parents, along with school staff, say that it's nearly impossible to successfully lobby Instagram to remove the content, which appears to violate the company's community guidelines.
Now the American Federation of Teachers — a union representing 1.7 million educators in the U.S. — has partnered with the nonprofit organization ParentsTogether to demand that Instagram, whose parent company is Meta, take gossip accounts seriously.
In a petition signed by more than 10,000 parents and educators, AFT and ParentsTogether implored Instagram to enforce the platform's community guidelines "by taking down all accounts that solely or primarily feature bullying content" and prioritize bullying and harassment reports made by verified school accounts.
The petition also requests that Instagram meet with a group of teachers and parents to discuss the harm caused by these anonymous posts, noting that victims have experienced distraction and depression as a result. In some cases, victims have attempted or died by suicide. (While suicide is complex, being bullied is a key risk factor.)
"You have the toxic mix of meanness and cruelty and bullying and loneliness, which is why parents and teachers together are saying enough," Randi Weingarten, president of AFT, told Mashable.
AFT provided Mashable with several disturbing examples of content that appeared on Instagram school gossip accounts in the past year, and remain publicly accessible. They include information about named students' sexual behavior, including the use of related slurs; photo captions of students with humiliating or racist descriptions of their physical appearance; claims about specific students being pregnant or committing crimes; and, even an image of a teacher accompanied by the accusation that the person is a pedophile.
Weingarten said that any claims of child abuse by a teacher should be swiftly addressed, through appropriate channels.
"You have the toxic mix of meanness and cruelty and bullying and loneliness, which is why parents and teachers together are saying enough."
"All of this goes against Meta's own standards," said Weingarten. "It's simply left up and I don't know if it's because Meta doesn't know what's going on, or doesn't care."
Mashable contacted Meta for comment on the petition, but the company declined.
Weingarten said that even though anonymous rumor accounts existed previously, the pandemic appeared to supercharge the phenomenon. She suspects that the combination of isolation, excessive screen time, and mental health issues amongst adolescents has created a dynamic in which students are lashing out at each other.
Emily Weinstein, co-author of the book Behind Their Screens: What Teens Are Facing (And Adults Are Missing), told Mashable that adolescents are primed to care deeply about what their peers are doing and how they're perceived by others. During this stage of their development, gossip can reinforce belonging, if the young person participating isn't a target of rumors. Teens may even feel relief when a peer is the subject of gossip because it means they're not the center of negative attention — yet.
While this might sound familiar to anyone who's gone to junior high, Weinstein said that social media takes it to a frightening level while creating dangerous risks for young people's mental health.
"A lot of the ways technologies go bad is because they play, and in many cases even prey, on what are developmental sensitivities for kids or for adolescents," said Weinstein, a researcher and principal investigator at Project Zero, a research center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. "I think that is definitely true here."
Weinstein added that some students appear to be drawing on practices from so-called cancel culture when they post anonymously, specifically by "dragging" peers and "sharing receipts" to document objectionable behavior. Some may feel justified doing this if they feel they're holding a student or educator "accountable."
"These tech companies – Instagram – they have the responsibility to keep their most vulnerable users safe."
Weingarten believes that some anonymous gossip accounts may be mimicking tactics used by conservative social media accounts like the once-anonymous Libs of TikTok, which has targeted teachers and adults who identify as LGBTQ by accusing them of "grooming" children.
"[W]hat happens when you want to undermine public schools, or you want to undermine teaching and learning, [is] that there becomes a state of anonymous reports," she said, adding that the proliferation of anonymous accusations tends to be "suspicious."
Ailen Arreaza, co-director of ParentsTogether, told Mashable that it's possible to balance the free speech interests of students who want to use anonymous accounts for activism and creativity with protecting their safety from threats like bullying.
She said that parents have felt unable to stop anonymous accounts that target their children. Instagram dismisses or ignores their appeals to remove the content, according to Arreaza. AFT said that educators often have a similar experience.
Arreaza has heard of students who've been forced to change schools to escape bullying and who've received direct threats from their peers. Online bullying related to anonymous Instagram accounts has also led to physical violence at school.
"These tech companies – Instagram – they have the responsibility to keep their most vulnerable users safe," said Arreaza. "There are solutions that are possible if we work together."
If you're feeling suicidal or experiencing a mental health crisis, please talk to somebody. You can reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988; the Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860; or the Trevor Project at 866-488-7386. Text "START" to Crisis Text Line at 741-741. Contact the NAMI HelpLine at 1-800-950-NAMI, Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. ET, or email info@nami.org. If you don't like the phone, consider using the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline Chat at crisischat.org. Here is a list of international resources.
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