Ending Sexploitation Podcast: OpenAI to add “Erotica” OpenAI’s Sam Altman has announced that adult users will be able to access “erotica” as part of their efforts to “treat adults like adults” on the platform.
Is this really the best use of technological innovation? Is this where the resources and priorities of companies like OpenAI should be channeled? Haley McNamara and Dani Pinter from NCOSE chat about this new development and the disingenuous context that is attempted in this announcement.
Tune in and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcast platform!
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The Tangible Harms of Virtual Reality: Child Exploitation on Meta’s VR Headset Elise (pseudonym) was using Meta’s virtual reality headset one day, when something troubling came across her screen: A message from a man she didn’t know, requesting explicit photographs. He followed up by asking if she wanted to come over to his house.
Elise was 9 years old.
This same man was later found guilty of exploiting another child online and sentenced to 35 years in prison.
According to former Meta researchers, interactions like this are all too common on Meta Quest, the virtual reality headset developed by the tech giant. Cayce Savage, a Meta researcher turned whistleblower, says she estimates that every single child who uses Meta Quest will be either sexually propositioned, sexually abused, or exposed to sexual content. She says, “I see it every time I use the headset.”
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Raising Boys in a Broken Culture: Tim Nester & Lynn’s Warriors Expose the Crisis
NCOSE Vice President, Tim Nester, appeared on Lynn's Warriors podcast to discuss raising young boys in a culture that is inundated with pornography, violent video games, and toxic masculinity. These things create harmful expectations for what it means to "be a man," which is part of what fuels sexual exploitation in our society. Men are by and large the primary perpetrators of sexual exploitation. But why? And how can we turn that around?
In this episode of Lynn's warriors, Tim confronts this fact with courage and discusses how to transform things for the next generation. He shares valuable insights as both a father and a leading advocate against sexual exploitation. He calls for teaching young boys ideals like courage, responsibility, and leadership can help them to be part of the solution, not the problem. |
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TIME: Instagram Promised to Become Safer For Teens. Researchers Say It’s Not Working. TIME Magazine obtained a report from fellow child safety advocate organizations about the efficacy of Instagram's "teen accounts," rolled out late last year.
"A new report shared exclusively with TIME suggests the safeguards that Instagram’s parent company Meta rolled out last year have failed to stem safety issues for teens. In the study from child advocacy groups ParentsTogether Action, the HEAT Initiative, and Design It for Us, which Meta disputed as biased, nearly 60% of teens aged 13 to 15 reported encountering unsafe content and unwanted messages on Instagram during the last six months. Nearly 60% of the kids who received unwanted messages said they came from users they believe to be adults. And nearly 40% of kids who got unwanted messages said they came from someone who wanted to start a sexual or romantic relationship with them."
Later on in the article, a former Meta staffer describes the questionable practices of Instagram's algorithm:
"Arturo Bejar, a former senior engineering and product leader at Meta who helped design that study, told TIME that the company’s algorithm rewards suggestive content, even from children who don’t know what they’re doing. 'The minors didn’t begin that way, but the product design taught them that,' says Bejar. “At that point, Instagram itself becomes the groomer.'” |
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P.S. Want to make a big difference in the fight to end sexual exploitation? Join the Defender Coalition!
The Defender Coalition is a community of monthly donors and advocates, committed for the long haul to ending sexual abuse and exploitation at its roots. Thanks to a matching grant offered by a generous donor, all Defenders' gifts will be automatically DOUBLED each month between now and the end of 2025! |
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