Instagram Promotes Explicit Content to Teens, Iowa AG Suit Says

Meta Platforms Inc. faces a lawsuit from Iowa’s state attorney general alleging it has deceived the public by falsely advertising Instagram as a platform safe for teenagers.

Minors can access drugs, pornography, and other content with mature language and themes despite the social media platform’s community guidelines, age ratings, and censorship moderators, the state said in a Wednesday complaint filed in the Iowa District Court for Polk County.

“Instagram says their content is safe for kids. It’s not,” Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said in a news release. “And Instagram was designed to get our children addicted to it, causing harm to their mental health and physical safety.”

Iowa is one of several states pushing to protect childrens’ privacy and safety on online platforms. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Snap Inc. in February over Snapchat’s addictive features and inappropriate content. Meta and Alphabet Inc.'s Google were also hit with a jury verdict that deemed the companies negligent in their role cultivating platforms that are addictive to young users.

Instagram rates itself as 13+ or T for Teen in the App Store, Google Play, and Microsoft Stores, the lawsuit says. The app’s community guidelines also prohibit content that contains nudity or promotes and coordinates the use of non-medical drugs.

Yet the platform allows “rampant profanity, sexual content and nudity, alcohol, tobacco, and drug use and references, and mature/suggestive themes on the Instagram platform, including readily accessible hardcore pornography,” Bird claims. Instagram also allegedly “promotes content that explicitly references and in some cases encourages self-harm and suicide,” in addition to eating disorders, depression, and anxiety—a trend the state claims is especially harmful to girls and young women.

This type of content can be accessed by teens “even if parental controls were enabled on their device and would otherwise have prevented the user from accessing this content on an ordinary web browser,” the complaint said. The state lawsuit cited various reports and news articles to back its claims, including a report by the Digital Citizens Alliance calling Instagram a “home to dealers peddling opioids” and a Washington Post investigation shedding light on sexual extortion scams teens could run into on the app.

“Whether by design or by failure, Defendants’ moderators miss large amounts of mature content on Instagram, leaving young Iowans regularly exposed to it,” the complaint said. “Defendants’ misrepresentations—the age ratings, associated public statements, assurances in the Community Guidelines, and related omissions—are material to the decisions that parents and other consumers make about whether and how to use the Instagram app.”

A Meta spokesperson said the company is “confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people.”

“For over a decade, we’ve listened to parents, worked with experts and law enforcement, and conducted in-depth research to understand the issues that matter most,” the company said in an emailed statement. “We use these insights to make meaningful changes—like introducing Teen Accounts with built-in protections and providing parents with tools to manage their teens’ experiences.”

The lawsuit seeks declaratory relief under the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act and a permanent injunction compelling Instagram to stop publishing “deceptive and unfair statements about the content available on the platform.” The state also requests disgorgement, civil penalties, and other costs and fees.

Cooper & Kirk Pllc is also representing the state.

The case is Iowa v. Meta Platforms Inc., Iowa Dist. Ct., complaint filed 4/8/26.