At just 11 years old, Jane was placed in a chat room with predators by Omer. She was threatened, exploited and abused despite her lament that it would stop.
John was 15 years old and downloaded what he thought was a safe dating app.
Mary was 12 years old. The convicted predator used Snapchat to groom her to create exploitative images through the app, and even travelled to her home. Snapchat has failed to detect or remove illegal material.
Their names are pseudonyms, but these are real child abuse survivors who sought justice for the crime committed against them. But none of them receive justice for one law.Section 230 of Communications Degree Act.
The law needs to protect people who have experienced horrible crimes, but instead Section 230 gives online platforms a broad immunity to crimes committed on the site, making many people, especially children vulnerable.
Section 230 is a legal loophole that is interpreted as a widespread acceptance of immunity on online platforms from liability, even if it intentionally, recklessly or negligently enables child sexual abuse, sex trafficking, or other harm.
Section 230 is the biggest enabler of online sexual exploitation.
For this reason, the National Centre on Sexual Exploitation, named Section 230, is2025 Dirty Darth Listof mainstream contributors to sexual exploitation. Instead of naming the 12 companies, the list was reimagined this year, highlighting the 12 survivors who were prevented from receiving justice for Section 230. Some of these survivors were contacted by predators on high-tech platforms. Some were groomed and trafficked online. Some people posted child sexual abuse online. Everything is prevented from receiving justice.
The scale of online sexual abuse isriseExponentially. 2023,More than one in three people(35%) reported online sexual interactions. Most sex trafficking victims areIt was adopted and promotedonline. There are reports of 812 ofweekly disruptionsTo the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.
Despite years of advocacy, advances are slow and fragmented, as big technologies lack basic incentives to prioritize online safety.
Large tech lawyers use Section 230 as shields, even in the most vicious cases. Social Media Platform Attorney in the lawsuit against X Recognised The company has chosen not to overthrow John Do's reported child sexual abuse material, even after reviewing and verifying the report. However, in Section 230, the company is protected.
Doe images and videos Posted on Twitterhas received at least 167,000 views and over 2,000 retweets. Doe felt so humiliated and unable to escape, and he thought about ending his life.
The only solution is for Congress to abolish Section 230, hold large-scale technology accountable, give survivors access to justice, and prevent online sexual abuse and exploitation.
This is an important issue in our time, and all efforts to prevent harm on the Internet will depend on the abolition of Section 230. This behavior leads to a world where prevention of an enormous massive scale of sexual abuse and exploitation and ultimately human dignity is supported and respected.
Hailey McNamara is Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Programs.National Centre for Sexual Exploitationa national nonprofit organization that exposes links between all forms of sexual exploitation, including child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking, and the public health harms of pornography.
