You may be surprised to learn which digital entities have been accused of facilitating, enabling, and even profiting from online sexual abuse and exploitation.
Last month, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation issued the following statement:
Annual “Dirty Dozen” lista campaign to draw attention to organizations and companies believed to be complicit in sexual exploitation.
This year’s list includes the following organizations and NCOSE’s reasons for including them:
- apple: “This big tech company refuses to scan for child sexual abuse content, hosts dangerous apps with deceptive age ratings and descriptions, and includes safety features for teens by default.” I won’t.”
- cash app: “This peer-to-peer payment app appeals to pimps, predators, and pedophiles looking for covert ways to commit criminal activities.”
- Article 230 of the Communications Decency Act: “The biggest enabler of online sexual exploitation. A misinterpretation of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act provides blanket immunity for all kinds of wrongdoing facilitated by Big Tech.”
- cloudflare: “Providing a platform for sex buyers and traffickers. Cloudflare says it wants to build a better internet. So why is it servicing the most prolific prostitution forums and deepfake sites?” Do you?”
- discord: “This platform is popular with predators who seek to groom children and creepy individuals who seek to create, exchange, or find sexual abuse content on children and unsuspecting adults. ”
- linkedin: “LinkedIn provides a platform that legitimizes Pornhub and other exploitative companies, ignores the promotion of deepfake tools, and allows rampant sexual harassment of women.”
- meta: “Meta’s introduction of end-to-end encryption, open source AI, and virtual reality is unleashing a new world of exploitation.”
- github: “The vast majority of deepfakes, ‘nudity’ apps, and AI-generated child sexual abuse content originates from this platform, which is owned by the world’s wealthiest companies. ”
- reddit: “Child sexual abuse, sex trafficking, and image-based sexual abuse are hidden within the countless pornographic subreddits allowed on this platform.”
- roblox: “Roblox treats child protection like a game. Inside avatars, blocks, and buildings, children are exposed to predators, rape-themed games, sex parties, and other age-inappropriate content. It has been.”
- spotify: “A network that trades sexually explicit images, sadistic content, and child sexual abuse material on its platform proves that Spotify is out of step with basic child safety and moderation practices.” .”
- telegram: “The messaging app Telegram serves as a safe haven for criminal communities around the world. Sexual torture rings, sextortion gangs, deepfake bots, and more are all thriving at an alarming scale.”
What you can quickly see from this list is that children and adolescents use these applications and programs every day.
Therefore, according to NCOSE, children are at risk of sexual exploitation through these entities, an alarming phenomenon that confirms the theory of psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s latest book, An Anxious Generation. That’s what it means.
his central idea
It will look like this: “We have overprotected our children in the real world and we have overprotected them in the virtual world.”
The fact that children face an onslaught of digital dangers in an increasingly technological world raises important questions about how parents can protect their children in a digital world.
If you asked Mr. Height for a prescription for this problem, he would advise against letting kids buy smartphones until they reach high school. And what about social media? Do not allow children to use it until they are at least 16 years old.
Others believe that the dangers posed by screens and social media are too great for any child, as the human brain does not fully develop until the mid-20s.
However, experts who spoke to Blaze News made it clear that this is not an issue that parents can ignore, as the well-being of the family and the life of the child are at stake.
“We have a distorted view that a creepy man in a van will pick up children on the way to the playground and that children will climb tall trees,” NCOSE said. said Lina Nealon, vice president and director of corporate advocacy. he told Blaze News.
“But we are giving them this extremely dangerous device with little oversight or even understanding of the dangers that are literally in the palm of their hands,” she warned.
Blaze News reached out to each of the companies listed above. No one provided a response to NCOSE’s allegations.
the problems are huge
Mental health challenges such as anxiety, depression, bullying, suicidal thoughts, addiction, and exploitation are just some of the problems in the digital world.
But the unique challenge of the digital world is that social media and digital technologies are designed to hijack your brain chemistry and keep you hooked by keeping you scrolling without understanding the consequences of such actions. That’s what I’m doing.
“They are dangerous by their very design, because their benefits come from facilitating those connections and keeping people online,” Nealon said.
According to Nealon, this online world is not only dangerous for you, but your children are especially vulnerable.
“First of all, there are very few restrictions or protections that protect children online from access by adults in general, strangers and certainly predatory adults,” she explained.
“Teenagers, they’re wired to want connections and encounters. They want to meet new people. They want to know where they fit in the world. So these companies , Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok have created an environment where it’s very easy to do that,” she said. “Not only do predators have easy access to children, but they create the very environment that makes children vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation.”
Nealon explained that social media companies exploit children’s vulnerabilities through connections, likes and shares, making them even more vulnerable.
“These platforms actually lower children’s self-esteem and self-worth, and also give predators and adults access to them to see what they’re up to, see their vulnerabilities, and actually interact with them. It allows us to interact,” she said. she said. “So from that perspective, this is very dangerous.”
Most worryingly, Nealon told Blaze News, there is no incentive for social media and digital companies to protect children.
“It’s their very business model that puts children at risk,” she says. “I would say that they are predators themselves in a way, because they prey on our children and their vulnerabilities for profit.”
How to protect your family
Thankfully, all is not lost.
We can protect our families and children from the harms of the digital world, but it takes intention and sacrifice.
1. Educate yourself and your children
Melanie Hempe Founder of ScreenStrongsaid the most important step to protect your family from the dangers of the digital world is to educate yourself and your family.
“Get educated and understand how children are different from adults,” Hempe told Blaze News. “The way adults use screens is very different from the way children use screens. We tend to think of children as just little adults, but that’s not the case. They don’t have impulse control. They’re high risk.” They’ll look for new things more than we do. ”
Hempe explained that the powerful power of digital technology is precisely why parents need to be educated to “know how to harness that power.”
“What I’m saying is, you pay now or you pay later, but someone will pay. And in most cases, our children will pay,” she warned.
Nealon issued a similar warning.
“Be knowledgeable and stay on top of trends and what’s going on,” she said. “There’s a lot of research out there…I think the less digital we have, the healthier our kids will be.”
2. Foster a community of shared values
Conversations with other adults where children are present, such as at school, church, or at a friend’s house, are critical to protecting children from the harms of the digital world.
“When I have conversations with adults in places where children are present, such as schools, churches, activities and youth groups, I often find that some people, even the leaders and those who are supposed to care for the children, do not understand. , we are constantly shocked by the fundamental risks of the technology they are using and may actually be encouraging their children to use,” Nealon told Blaze News. Ta.
“It’s important to have these conversations when your child is going out somewhere because you have all the safety features at home. You can have a conversation and you can be very alert,” she explained. “But, of course, they’re out there somewhere in the world. You want kids to make the right decisions, but they’re kids too.”
“So we can make sure that the other adults in our care are also careful and aware and are doing everything they can to minimize the risk to our children.” “We need to,” she said.
Hempe agreed that seeking a proper relationship with screens and the digital world requires nurturing community.
“It’s hard to do this alone, especially if you have kids. Kids want to hang out all day with other kids who aren’t playing Fortnite,” she said. “You want your kids to be around other kids who have the same values and are pushing the same high bar as you.”
3. Internet filter
If you decide to let your children use digital technology, consider installing software on their devices that filters what they can see and access.
“Use the technology that is out there to protect your children online,” Nealon advised.
companies like bark, canopyand Covenant Eye We’ve built a solution for parents looking for filtering software. The advantage of these technologies is that they allow children to use the Internet while limiting what they can access (i.e., harmful content).
4. Become a coach
When it comes to technology and family, Hempe says parents need to be coaches.
“They look to us to be like coaches,” she said.
“My daughter has been doing gymnastics for years and I’ve learned a lot about coaching,” she explained. “I learned that when a kid is doing something dangerous, the coach has to be there. The coach has to be there. The coach can’t be in another room. And she learned, “Hey, I need a coach.” It’s the same with the screen, to find the kids. must be there.”
Hempe said it’s not a question of “control” or “legalization.” But she says giving children unfettered access to technology not only exposes them to the harms of the digital world, such as screen addiction and sexual exploitation, but also exposes them to driving Mack trucks on the interstate. I warned him that it would be like letting him do something.
“When they’re 10 years old and driving a Mack truck, it’s not safe on the highway,” she explained.
tools, not toys
The truth is, technology isn’t going anywhere. In less than 20 years, we’ve gone from iPhones to AI, and Gen Z can’t imagine life without social media and the digital world.
So it’s up to parents to take their family’s relationship with technology seriously. Exploitation, digital addiction, and attachment disorders are just some of the impacts parents are currently facing due to technology, screens, and social media.
As you assess technological advancements, remember this one principle from Hempe. Screens are “tools, not toys.”
If we remember that, Hempe promised, we can find ways to protect our families from the harms built into technology while raising our children in a digital world.
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