Social media, a place I love, and love to hate. I find it a great source of community support, and also a place where information and help are often better than in real life.
But recently I have noticed something that has made me feel a little uncomfortable.
If you have an instagram account or Tiktok account (if you are not following us on those, we are on Instagram here and Tiktok here ) you will know that you can see who has viewed your instagram stories, and if you have the settings allowed, you can see who has viewed your Tiktok profile.
This is handy, as it does let you see if you are reaching your audience, and who is looking at what you share.
But recently, I have noticed something not so nice about that.
Accounts viewing my stories and Tiktok profile that are, shall we say, not the kind of accounts a family/mum blogger would want viewing her accounts, aka adult accounts.
I was very puzzled by this, as I don’t post content that would, I hope attract said accounts, and I initially thought it was a glitch, or just weird bots. I block them, and tried to ignore it.
But I work in safeguarding in my day job, and it bothered me that there were weird accounts looking at my social media. I don’t share a great deal about my children these days without their consent, but it still didn’t feel right.
So I did a bit of digging, asking around, and trying to work out what I was doing to attract these accounts so I could stop them. Instagram and TIktok clearly don’t care and don’t manage spam, p..n accounts etc very well so I figured I would take matters into my own hands.
A quick google “why are adult instagram accounts viewing my instagram stories” (ok I didn’t use that exact term but I am not going to mention the p word here, because this is a family blog and I don’t want that to be picked up by search engines, thanks very much) brought me to Reddit where other people are talking about the same thing, as well as a few other sites too.
It seems I am not alone, phew. And there is a very plausible solution as to why it’s happening.
It seems if someone is blocked or not allowed to view your social media, then there is a way round that. You go to an anonymous instagram or Tiktok viewing site and look for the account you can’t see if you are logged into instagram. You can then see their public posts and stories, and they can’t see that you viewed them. What they see is that an “adult” account, usually with a rather graphic bio message has viewed their stories or profile.
Mystery solved. Mostly. Instagram can’t confirm this, and won’t admit it happens, and obviously it can’t be fully proved.
But it makes sense to me. There are people I have blocked who might be trying to see my instagram or Tiktok. Apparently being blocked hasn’t gone down well, and my life is that interesting that they need to try and find a way round it.
I can’t decide if that’s amusing or really desperate.
Sadly, there isn’t anything I can do about it, but at least I know it’s not because I am doing something that is attracting weird accounts to my social media.
But if you are trying to view my social media and you have been blocked, and you think you have found a way round it, please know that I know what you are doing and feel free to carry on. However if you need the number of my therapist, I am sure I can share that information with you.
Social media, love to hate it, love it, hate it. Not fun when other people make you feel unsafe and watched. But at least I know it’s nothing I have done. My father, mother in law and other people see what I post, I don’t share anything there that I am ashamed of, so if people want to watch from the shadows, then let them…
it’s no skin of my nose. Doesn’t reflect well on them though! π
If you would like to read why I had a radical Facebook cleanse and went from over 700 contacts to less than 100, you can find that here, too.