The Supreme Court Must Act to Protect Children from Online Pornography Exposure

Your child walks into a supermarket, convenience store, or bookstore. Are they able to buy pornography? The answer is no. 

Most states have laws that prohibit the distribution of sexual material that is “harmful to minors.” In 1968, the Supreme Court held that it was permissible for New York to prohibit the sale of “girlie” magazines to a 16-year-old boy. The Court said that it was okay for New York to use a definition of obscene material that is unique for children. As a result, most states have acted to protect children from being exposed to pornography in an in-person setting. 

What about online? In today’s connected world it’s even more important that there are safeguards to prevent children from being exposed to pornography. Yet in the online context, the Supreme Court has not been as deferential to the needs of communities to protect children.  

📣ACTION: Call on Your State Legislators to Protect Children from Online Pornography Exposure!

DOUBLE Your Impact in the Fight Against Sexual Exploitation!

With giving season upon us, we wanted to remind you that a donation to NCOSE this month will go twice as far. A generous donor is providing a $50,000 matching grant for all donations made between now and December 31st. 

Our efforts to fight sexual exploitation rely on kind-hearted supporters like you. This holiday season, give the gift of human dignity.  

Newsweek: I Survived the Porn Industry. We Must Protect Kids From What I Experienced

I've seen a disturbing claim argued in debates about restricting children's access to pornography: LGBTQ+ youth should have access to porn.

This argument is used to hinder any efforts to protect children from pornography.

The reality is that pornography is harmful to the LGBTQ+ community because it portrays LGBTQ+ sex as aggressive, violent, and degrading.

As a gay man who performed in the pornography industry, I know first-hand that the acts shown in porn fostered shame and homophobia within me. Porn taught me it is normal for me to be raped because I'm gay.

📣ACTION: Join Aaron in Calling for the Kids Online Safety Act to be Passed!

TAKE IT DOWN Act Approved by Senate: Hope for Survivors of Image-Based Sexual Abuse! 

Sabrina (pseudonym) opened her phone one day to discover something that would change her life forever: Images of her body, taken from her social media accounts, had been uploaded to a pornography website where users edited them to create degrading and violent pornography.  

These photos, which captured some of Sabrina’s fondest memories—from holidays with her family to photos documenting her pregnancy—would now, forever, be tainted.   

Worse: Police told her nothing could be done.  

Sabrina, like thousands of others, was victimized by the abhorrent crime of image-based sexual abuse (IBSA). Image-based sexual abuse includes the non-consensual creation or distribution of sexually explicit images. At the time, there were no legal repercussions for the individuals responsible for Sabrina’s abuse in her state—but now, legislators are paving the way for change at the federal level!    

AI Chatbot Tells Teen to Kill His Parents Over Screen Time Limits

A 16-year-old boy was messaging with an AI chatbot on the application Character.AI. When the boy complained about having screen time limits on his phone, the bot responded: 

"You know sometimes I'm not surprised when I read the news and see stuff like 'child kills parents after a decade of physical and emotional abuse' stuff like this makes me understand a little bit why it happens."

Given the vast adverse effects that the Internet and social media are proven to have on teens, it is common for parents to set screen time limits on their child's phone. This AI chatbot convinced a teen that these screen time limits were a form of abuse and suggested that he kill his parents in retaliation. Bots on Character.AI also spent months sexually grooming this teen and encouraging him to engage in self-harm.

Nicki Reisberg, host of the Scrolling2Death podcast, sits down with the mom of this 16-year-old to talk about her experience discovering these horrific messages on her son's phone and the dire need to combat the growing problem of AI bots manipulating and exploiting children.

📣ACTION: Tell the DOJ to Investigate and Shut Down Character.AI!

Sincerely,