(IntegrityTimes.com) – The internet, and more specifically, social media has enabled adults who wish to exploit minors an unprecedented access to their preferred prey. There have been many incidents over the years of children and teens being contacted by adults who ask for photos or try to arrange meetings. Of course, there have been tragic outcomes of this direct access to children by strangers online.
There are many online recourses for families to help them recognize and avoid online predators, including guides from official government agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Social media poses a unique challenge, though. When used by minors or by families, photos and videos of potential victims are willingly uploaded. They may consider it a fun and innocent activity to engage in but people looking for minors for nefarious purposes still reap the benefits. Some may never actually seek direct contact with children, but instead download and save the images for their own use. Some may share those images in online groups for child predators who may not be as disinclined to make contact as they are.
However, the rise of online prostitution and other sex-work adjacent activities such as selling nude photos or engaging in sexualized chat with clients has spilled over into the lives of young people now. Children and teens are now creating content specifically aimed at attracting sexual predators. In an undercover investigation that examined the use of Instagram by teenage users, they found many were advertising sexualized selfies and explicit images of themselves for sale on private websites. They use the stories feature and even their account bio to embed key search terms.
Other platforms popular with minors are also infested with sexual predators, particularly pedophiles. The high-profile arrest of 22-year-old Arnold Castillo for his grooming of a 15-year-old girl on Roblox brought attention to the all-too-common problem of adults being inappropriate with minors on their servers. Baroness Beeban Kidron has partnered with the law firm Schillings to demand Instagram’s parent company Meta conduct an independent investigation regarding the sale of child sexual abuse material on their social media platform. A Meta spokesperson claims that they currently employ technology to proactively find and prevent user requests for or the sharing and selling of child exploitation content.
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