Three men have been arrested and charged with sexually preying on children through meth social networks in New Mexico, New Mexico’s attorney general announced Wednesday.
The arrest stemmed from an investigation into the potential harm to children posed by Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, codenamed “Operation MetaPhile.” Three men were recruited by an undercover agent posing as children. gender, according to the criminal complaint. The sting is part of an ongoing lawsuit filed in December by Raul Torres’ office, accusing Meta of making its social media platform a marketplace for child predators.
“This operation focused on one specific point: the danger posed by meth. Meta social media platforms don’t just exist in the virtual world.” In fact, they pose a danger to children in the real world. It’s exposing us,” Torrez said at a news conference.
On May 7, 29-year-old Marlon Kellywood was arrested outside a motel in Gallup, New Mexico and charged with solicitation of a child by electronic communication device and attempted criminal trespass of a minor. Earlier in the day, Fernando Clyde, 52, was arrested and charged with the same crime.
“This is Mark Zuckerberg’s fault. This is the fault of company executives who have extraordinary resources at their disposal and who have chosen time and time again to put profits over the interests of children,” Torrez said. said. He contacted Mr. Mehta for comment.
The men are said to have used Facebook Messenger to send “truly horrifying” and “very graphic” messages to the undercover agents, who were believed to be around 12 years old.
The third man, Christopher Reynolds, 47, is a registered sex offender and was taken into custody several weeks ago, Torrez said. Undercover investigators zeroed in on him after his worried parents reported him targeting their 11-year-old daughter. He is charged with child solicitation.
“They clearly expressed a sexual interest in children,” Torrez said. “These are individuals who have explicitly used this platform to find and target children.”
Torrez said the agents posing as children did not initiate conversations about sexual contact. Instead, he said, the three men charged were able to locate and contact all of them and find the children through Facebook and Instagram’s design features.
Since the New Mexico lawsuit was filed in December, Torres’ office has updated its legal filings several times to include a list of new allegations.
Internal meta documents obtained by the attorney general’s office as part of the investigation also show that the company estimates that about 100,000 children who use Facebook and Instagram endure online sexual harassment every day. It was revealed.
The lawsuit also alleges that Facebook and Instagram profit by placing advertisements for companies like Walmart and Match Group next to content that may promote child sexual exploitation, citing internal documents and emails. He claims to have obtained.
The lawsuit follows a two-year investigation by the Guardian that found tech giants struggled to prevent people from using their platforms to buy and sell children for sex. It became clear that
In January, Torres told the Guardian that he wanted the lawsuit to give Meta a platform to change the way it operates and introduce new regulations that “prioritize the safety of our users.” Meta filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
