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Meta doesn't need any help defending itself, but there's a whiff of can't-win-for-losing in the latest Wall Street Journal stemwinder about Instagram - a profile of a young girl who's acquired 100,000 followers by posting videos of herself dancing and doing other activities traditionally associated with being a young girl.

So far, so boring, but the twist is 92 percent of her followers are adult males, many of whom - I assume virtually all - are pedophiles. The rest of the story is as creepy as you'd imagine*.

Alas, Meta's efforts, such as they are, to keep kids and predators away from each other in large part created this depressing situation. Anyone under 13 must have parental permission to open an account on Instagram, a policy which clears out a large chunk of what would be the girl's traditional, wholesome audience of other girls. It's hardly a surprise all that's left is pervs.

Less defensible is Instagram's policy of directing users to accounts that mirror their interests. It's all fun and games when someone likes cars, but if users follow a few teenagers, the super-secret algorithm puts them in touch with more teenagers. The site acts a lazy man's guide to pedophilia.

The entire mess raises the question of what possible value could this girl be as an "influencer." (Companies pay her to wear clothes or display products; she's collected about $20k for her efforts.) While it would come as no shock that pedophiles are interested in buying girls' clothing, I had sufficient faith in humanity that not only would such a market be too small to be worth pursuing, the boys in marketing would understand such a market would be immoral to pursue in the first place. We're left to ponder the notion that certain companies are run by idiots or degenerates or both.

Though it runs long - I'm increasingly irritated by journalistic "deep dives" as currently constituted - it's worth a read simply to consider the mother's dilemma. (She acts as a barrier between her daughter and her followers.) While her income is not divulged, she's divorced, and there are sufficient clues sprinkled throughout that annual trips to St. Tropez are not a family tradition. The money is clearly welcome, and it's being socked away to pay for college and a car. But at what cost, as they say. It defies credulity the girl is completely ignorant of who's following her.

That's a hell of a way to introduce a kid to the adult world.

*Particularly galling is the clubby-ness pedophiles display online. They're all pals. They're on a team. They share assumptions. They have secret lines of communication. They have inside jokes. It's as if they think they're some twisted version of Freemasons.