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Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, recently introduced the Preventing Rampant Online Technological Exploitation and Criminal Trafficking Act of 2022 (PROTECT Act) to bring much-needed and long-overdue regulation to the porn industry, which is currently rampant with abuses.

The PROTECT Act requires porn websites to verify the age, consent, and identity of all individuals appearing on their platforms, filling an urgent and essential regulatory gap.

Online pornography is one of the most lucrative and fastest growing industries in the world today, yet at the same time it is one of the most immune from regulation. This has made an already dangerous industry ripe for further exploitation. The lack of regulation has resulted in pornography websites hosting a large amount of material that is the product of sex trafficking and child exploitation.

The last few years especially have seen a rapid increase in the amount of child pornography (known as child sexual abuse material or CSAM), with social media only further exacerbating its distribution. Without any legal requirement for websites to verify the age or consent of individuals depicted in porn, human traffickers are able to easily exploit children and other victims and upload that exploitation for profit. And every time that exploitation is viewed, that child is revictimized again and again.

Read more here.

The new and most necessary documentary was just released: ‘Sextortion: The Hidden Pandemic’ uncovers the hidden world of online enticement and exploitation of children and what we can do to stop it. A must watch. The Hidden Pandemic is an investigation into the world of online grooming and sextortion–a present-day reality for one in seven children online. By unsealing the federal case of a top-gun pilot with hundreds of victims, and interviewing survivors and their parents, this true-crime piece exposes an often-overlooked crime against children, the tactics of online predators, and the voices of parents and law enforcement poised to stop online child exploitation in its tracks. criminal activity is happening in every town, city and rural area in America. 

Please watch here. Learn more. It’s 2022. Everyone needs to #BeAWarrior

Why knowing age is important

In addition to knowing whether a user is 13 or older and therefore eligible to have an Instagram account, the company needs to know if a user is under 18 or between 13 and 16 so that they can take advantage of age-appropriate privacy and safety settings and be shielded from content and features that may be inappropriate for younger users.

For example, if the service knows a teen is under 16, they will be defaulted into a private account. Users under 18 are protected from unwanted contact by making it harder for potentially suspicious accounts to find young people.

By knowing the age of the user, Instagram is able to provide other protections including:

• Preventing adults not followed by the teen from sending them direct messages
• Notifying teens when an adult who has been exhibiting potentially suspicious behavior is interacting with them in direct messaging
• Not allowing people teens don’t follow to tag or mention them, or include their content in Reels, Remixes or Guides
• Preventing adults who have engaged in suspicious behavior from finding and following teens
• Being sent “take a break” notices
• “Topic nudge” that encourages teens  to a different topic if they’re repeatedly looking at the same type of content, regardless of what it is
• The option to turn on (or off) parental supervision tools to enable their parents to help support them in their use of social media.
• Prohibiting advertisers to target ads to people under 18 based on interest and activity on other apps and websites, though it does allow ads to be targeted based on age, gender and location
• Blocking age-gated branded content that is not appropriate for teens, including content about alcohol, subscription services, financial insurance products and services, cosmetic procedures and weight loss.

Read more here.

Sextortion: The Hidden Pandemic is an investigation into the world of online grooming and sextortion–a present-day reality for one in seven children online. By unsealing the federal case of a top-gun pilot with hundreds of victims, and interviewing survivors and their parents, this true-crime piece exposes an often-overlooked crime against children, the tactics of online predators, and the voices of parents and law enforcement poised to stop online child exploitation in its tracks.

Available now on AppleTV

It only takes an instant for anyone to become a victim of image-based sexual abuse (IBSA).

It can happen through hidden camera videos, deepfake/edited images, leaked photos, filmed child sexual abuse, rape, sex trafficking, and prostitution.

These images can circulate fast and be posted to pornography websites, or shared without consent to other platforms, often before the victim even realizes it has happened.

The cruel irony is that there are currently no federal laws requiring websites which allow pornography on their platforms to verify the age and consent of every person depicted in those images. This is a massive gap in the law, and one that must be and can be immediately rectified.

Recognizing this problem after sitting down and working with survivors, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), last night introduced the Preventing Rampant Online Technological and Criminal Trafficking Act of 2022 (PROTECT Act)

Learn more and help support PROTECT Act.

Thank you. We need all of you.  We cannot do this alone.