New legal precedent could turn social media into open child pornography marketplaces
Key takeaways
- Our children face unprecedented danger online, as 13-year-old John Doe discovered after falling victim to an online solicitation from a pretty girl on Snapchat.
- Twitter continued to promote and profit from the sexual abuse of these young teens.
- John s family rightfully sued Twitter.
Why this matters: political developments that affect policy direction and public trust.
Our children face unprecedented danger online, as 13-year-old John Doe discovered after falling victim to an online solicitation from a pretty girl on Snapchat. The pretty girl was not real, but instead a predator who elicited child sexual abuse material from John and his friend.
Much to John s horror, that material eventually found its way onto Twitter (now X). The post was also shared among John s peers at school, humiliating him to the point of contemplating suicide. Despite this, John was hopeful that he could get the abuse material taken down. He reached out to Twitter with identification to prove that he and his friend were minors and that the material should be removed immediately.
But when Twitter was alerted to this fact and the ages of John and his friend, Twitter refused to remove the illegal material, saying, We ve reviewed the content, and didn t find a violation of our policies, so no action will be taken at this time.