The Influencer Is a Young Teenage Girl. The Audience Is 92% Adult Men. - WSJ

“It wasn’t like I was trying to push her to be a star, but part of me thought it was inevitable, that it could happen someday,” the mom said. “She just has that personality.”

The mom was torn. To reach the influencer stratosphere, the account would need a lot more followers—and she would have to be less discriminating about who they were. Instagram promotes content based on engagement, and the male accounts she had been blocking tend to engage aggressively, lingering on photos and videos and boosting them with likes or comments. Running them off, or broadly disabling comments, would likely doom her daughter’s influencer aspirations.

That was a reason to say no. There were also reasons to say yes. The mom felt the account had brought her closer with her daughter, and even second- and third-tier influencers can make tens of thousands of dollars a year or more. The money could help pay for college, the mom thought.

The mom said yes. And with that, she grew to accept a grim reality: Being a young influencer on Instagram means building an audience including large numbers of men who take sexual interest in children.

“It’s not that I liked it, ever. Ever. It just is what it is,” the mom said. At times, she’s questioned her decision to keep the account going. The account dashboard had recently put the number of male followers at 92%. At one point, she offered Instagram subscriptions to users willing to pay a monthly fee for extra photos and videos. Many of them were also men.

via www.wsj.com

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