A grieving father has shared the despair he felt after learning the truth about a $13 substance his teenage son bought online.

Bruce Brown said the odorless, yellowish-white powder was delivered in a standard UPS package to his Colorado home in late November 2022, and was addressed to his 17-year-old son, Bennett, a competitive soccer player.

He thought it was just an athletic supplement, and texted his son that night asking what it was – but never received an answer, according to USA Today.

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On Tuesday, Instagram announced it was going to set teenager accounts to private by default. A recent sextortion case on the platform, one of many to have plagued Instagram over recent years, highlights why Meta has felt the need to lock down accounts owned by younger users.

A Virginia man was charged in May this year with carrying out a sextortion campaign over Instagram and Kik Messenger, using a real-life porn actress’ photos to trick as many as 60 victims into sharing nude images, previously-unreported court records show.

Gary Owens Jr. has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which allege he grabbed online photos of the porn star, who now lives in Florida, and convinced victims he was a real young teenage woman named Jessica Lincon who wanted to engage in a sexual relationship with them. The government did not say why Owens was doing it other than to trick victims into producing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) for him.

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ODESSA, Texas (KOSA) – U.S. Representative Tony Gonzales’ (R-TX-23) bipartisan legislation, the Find and Protect Foster Youth Act, passed in the U.S. House of Representatives and will be signed into law within the coming days.

This bipartisan legislation seeks to create an improved feedback mechanism between states and the Administration of Children and Families (ACF) to provide better oversight and information-sharing related to missing and runaway foster youth.

GREAT NEWS FOR TODAY!

A House panel advanced the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) on Wednesday, pushing forward legislation intended to boost online privacy and safety for children.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s advancement of KOSA hands advocacy groups a temporary win following weeks of uncertainty about the bill’s future amid GOP pushback. Some lawmakers could be heard opposing in the voice vote, though the roll was not called.

Read more here.

If you know of, hear or see anything, please call 911 immediately and/or 1-800-THE-LOST

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