Dear Friend,
Greetings! At the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, we are proud to celebrate another month of incredible victories that YOU made possible:
The TAKE IT DOWN Act was signed into law by the President of the United States! This law criminalizes the uploading or distribution of image-based sexual abuse, including non-consensually-shared or AI-generated sexually explicit imagery, and mandates tech companies remove the images within 48 hours of them being reported by a survivor.
On behalf of a 14-year-old boy in Kansas, the NCOSE Law Center has sued multiple pornography companies for violating the state's age verification laws, and allowing this boy access to their harmful material. These are the first lawsuits of their kind in the United States!
NCOSE also launched "Not a Fantasy" Report, which delves into the ways the pornography industry exploits image-based sexual abuse.
Looking to the month ahead, we continue to push for legislation like the Kids Online Safety Act, the DEFIANCE Act, and the NO FAKES Act, which each address the issue of sexual abuse and exploitation in complementary ways. We also are eagerly awaiting a decision from the Supreme Court regarding the constitutionality of Texas's age verification law. The Court's ruling will play a pivotal role in determining how future generations are protected from exposure to online pornography, with lasting consequences for better or worse.
Thank you for supporting us in the fight against sexual exploitation. Read on for more updates! Sincerely, |
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The Daily Caller: Tori Hirsch: KOSA is the Only Way to Stop Tech's Cruel Carelessness
"A 16-year-old boy dies by suicide after being sexually extorted by a predator on Instagram. A 14-year-old girl, bombarded with pro-eating disorder content on TikTok, becomes so ill that she has to go on a feeding tube for months. A 15-year-old girl is raped by a 32-year-old man who groomed her on Snapchat," writes Tori Hirsch, legal counsel for NCOSE, in an op-ed published in the Daily Caller.
Hirsch calls attention to these tragedies because they are remarkably preventable, with the rights laws in place. Most notably, the Kids Online Safety Act is a vital piece of legislation that can prevent catastrophic instances, like the ones described above. But Big Tech is afraid of laws that would protect children on their platforms because it hurts their pockets.
"Digital platforms are dangerous by design," Hirsch continues. "Technology’s Achilles’ heel is that the tech industry did not set out to design their products with safety in mind. The industry has primarily introduced products and platforms to great fanfare but then appear to get surprised by vulnerabilities that have caused harm to users, and especially to children."
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"The Right Track" Documentary Premiere, June 13th
"The Right Track," a documentary on the realities of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation in North America, premieres Friday, June 13th at Regal Cinema at Gallery Place in Washington, D.C.:
"Told through the eyes of those who live it, this unflinching film exposes the prevalence of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation hiding in plain sight across North America, and the fight to end it. At its core is the Survivor Model—a transformative approach that decriminalizes prostituted individuals while imposing strict penalties on the ecosystem that enables it: pimps, traffickers, and sex buyers. Through gripping narratives from survivors, advocates, policymakers, and law enforcement, it unveils the incredible courage required for survivors to escape “the life” and rebuild, whether off the track or out of the brothel system. It also sheds light on the critical steps needed to bring traffickers and buyers to justice, revealing how trafficking thrives not only in distant places but right in our own neighborhoods. THE RIGHT TRACK is both a call to action and a powerful testament to the resilience of survivors fighting for change."
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Podcast: Busting the Myths of Prostitution | Reem Alsalem
In this episode, we get to hear from Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls for the United Nations. We were honored to have her join us to speak at the 2024 CESE Global Summit, and this session is titled “Beyond Consent: Prostitution, Pornography, and Human Rights” in which she looks at prostitution as sexual exploitation and a violation of the human right to dignity. She also looks specifically at pornography and other forms of technology facilitated forms of prostitution as she busts 7 myths about prostitution.
Reem Alsalem is an independent consultant on gender issues, the rights of refugees and migrants, transitional justice and humanitarian response. She has consulted extensively for United Nations departments, agencies and programmes such as UN-Women, OHCHR, UNICEF and IOM, as well as for non-governmental organizations, think tanks and academia. Previously, she worked as an international civil servant, serving with the UNHCR in thirteen countries. During her service, she has planned, implemented, and monitored programs that served to protect persons that were survivors of gender-based violence, particularly women and girls.
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Disturbing A.I. Apps Allow People to "Kiss Anyone They Want"
Imagine:
You’re chatting with your friends on Instagram, looking to make some plans for the weekend.
Suddenly one of them sends a jarring picture in the group chat. “Is this you?” your friend asks. “Someone just sent it to me on Snapchat.” Your heart falls to your stomach. The photo is of you kissing a boy from school. But you’ve never kissed him before.
Your mind is racing: How is this possible?
It makes you feel violated just looking at it. Even worse is the knowledge that other people have seen it, and might think it’s real. How many people have seen it?
AI kissing apps have made scenarios like this one a disturbing reality. While on the surface, it may seem like harmless teen shenanigans, nothing more than an innocent kiss, these actions are still a grave violation of sexual boundaries. |
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