Watchdog group outs mainstream social media for sexual exploitation

 By Diana Chandler - Posted at Baptist Press:

WASHINGTON (BP) – Lina Nealon, a sexual assault survivor and mother of four children, poses as a 14-year-old on Snapchat. Within minutes, Snapchat’s Stories section, marketed as “content from vetted media publishers and content creators,” recommends sexually suggestive videos.

“Clearly Snap and I have a different idea of what is acceptable content to share with teens,” said Nealon, vice president and director of corporate advocacy for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE). “It is long past due for them to make blanket changes to make our kids safe.”

Nealon shares her story on Instagram in NCOSE’s release May 2 of its 10th annual Dirty Dozen List, accusing the companies of facilitating, enabling and profiting from sexual abuse and exploitation.

Snapchat joins Apple App Store, Discord, eBay, Instagram, Kik, Microsoft’s GitHub, Only Fans, Reddit, Roblox, Spotify and Twitter in comprising NCOSE’s Dirty Dozen.

“Those on our 2023 Dirty Dozen List were included for facilitating a diverse set of sexual exploitation issues including sex trafficking, image-based sexual abuse, child sexual abuse material, grooming children for exploitation, and childlike sex abuse dolls,” Nealon said. “Sexual abuse and exploitation are on the rise and are facilitated by digital platforms” Nealon said. “It is past time for tech platforms to stop their products from threatening the safety of children and enabling sexual abuse to happen to people of all ages.”

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