{"id":15194,"date":"2024-02-20T23:44:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T07:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=15194"},"modified":"2025-03-04T03:08:14","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T11:08:14","slug":"issue-of-the-week-148","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=15194","title":{"rendered":"Issue of the Week: Human Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Young
A Marketplace of Girl Influencers Managed by Moms and Stalked by Men<\/em>, The New York Times, Feb. 22, 2024
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The End Of Civilization As We Knew It: Part Twenty Three<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have updated this piece from its initial presentation as a result of an extraordinary New York Times investigative journalism front page article released online about 24 hours after posting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When civilization finally crashes into the abyss, the one place you won’t be able to point your finger at is the investigative journalist team at The New York Times which has created the most extraordinary group of reports dominating front page covers over the past few years on the issue of child sexual abuse and its partner in a new level of exponential perpetration, corporate technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We continue to focus on this issue from last week’s Issue Of The Week<\/a>, not just as a follow-up to the last Issue (and many before on this subject), and not just because it is the single most grotesque example of evil in our species, and not just because the damage from it to individuals and society is the single worst example of what is unsustainable about humanity unless it is turned around from expanding to in the main being ended (absolutely doable with the cultural and political will)–but because the example of the Times is beyond exemplary and the issue now investigated is as teachable a moment as it gets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have been many moments and examples and studies given of the abuse of boys being virtually as widespread as the abuse of girls–and of women being perpetrators, and the enablers in chief, as well as men. The point of the point is the reminder that in the end this is an issue of the most vulnerable being abused by power that is supposed to protect them–by men, women, all adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best known modern popular work on mysogyny, “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” got this point in. The original Swedish film version is incredible, but in part plays into the idea of the child protecting the mother rather than the other way around. The American version of the film made it unmistakably clear that child sex abuse was at the core of the rot as well as the convergence of all evil being in the abuse of power (and the connection between neo-nazis, racism, sexism, child abuse and the power of the haves over the have nots), being downright terrifyingly prophetic in 2009 and 2011 looking back now. The author here went to the American version in the theaters in 2011 with their teen daughter, who commented that it was clear at the end that child sex abuse was at the genesis of the story. When the journalist protagonist finds the woman who had been thought murdered as a teen but in fact had faked death to escape the ongoing rape by her father and brother (also raped by the father), justifiably being forced to kill her father in the escape, he asked her, “Why didn’t you tell anyone?” She responded, “I did. I told my mother.” Who did nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many ways in different contexts and societies in which gender and gender inequality are very much factors in child abuse in various ways, twisted and twisting like the fibers of a rope with many other factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All reduced to one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The abuse of power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And as we’ve kept pointing out there is no abuse of power and of children that equals that of incest and other abuse by parents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if you don’t get that as easily as having a random thought, then for the sake of the children, the species and the planet, wrap up for a long walk–as long as it takes–until the obvious becomes obvious. No one and nothing impacts us at every level like our parents and our families of origin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we hear that half of all children on earth are abused, neglected, victims of violence, it’s a shock that can often be followed by numbness, then tossed out of consciousness because it demands action in an age of dumbed down narcissism like none before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And among activists too there has been a strange regression. For instance in the context of violence and war, the phrase “women and children” has had a resurgence after the proper phrase “children and adults” had begun to replace the former outmoded, sexist, anti-child, brain-rotted phrase. Journalists we respect in other regards succumb to it. Women are more important than and more vulnerable than children, and men don’t exist in this phrase-making. It’s the summation of all inequality and abuse established by a patriarchal controlled commentariat meant to put women on a pedastal in shackles going back centuries, with children an afterthought and men allowed to exist only as superhuman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isn’t that just great. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so reassuring in 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children come second at best, women are infantalized and men as equal vulnerable beings don’t exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of owning equality for women and men, and most importantly the prioitizing and protection of children<\/em>, is being clear that women are just as responsible as men for the harm of children and that all adults have equal responsibility in their nurturing and protection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which brings us to the Times’ most recent brilliant contribution to truth telling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The emphasis in media and throughout the culture worldwide of social media would literally be impossible to overstate, as well as the attention given it in terms of harm to children in countless ways. It’s like a petri dish for creating disordered minds, especially for children in their most crtical developmental stages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which mirrors the larger role of mental, emotional and spiritual corruption social media is playing in the war between democracy and human rights and dictatorship and brutality writ large across the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No greater cause and effect than the influence of social media, and no more horrific example of the degree of corruption of the human species exemplified by the selling of daughters by their mothers (you know, the natural protectors in the animal world), for the sake of their own images and profit–selling in many ways, but specifically to pedophiles, as the focus of The New York Times piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here it is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A Marketplace of Girl Influencers Managed by Moms and Stalked by Men<\/a>” – The New York Times<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jennifer Valentino-DeVries and Michael H. Keller, Feb. 22, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this investigation, the reporters analyzed 2.1 million Instagram posts, monitored months of online chats of professed pedophiles and interviewed over 100 people, including parents and children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeking social media stardom for their underage daughters, mothers post images of them on Instagram. The accounts draw men sexually attracted to children, and they sometimes pay to see more.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

. . .<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This box represents a real photo of a 9-year-old girl in a golden bikini lounging on a towel. The photo was posted on her Instagram account, which is run by adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

🔥🔥🔥<\/p>\n\n\n\n

wooowww<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mama mia ❤️❤️🥰💯🤗<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Great body😍🔥❤️<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love<\/p>\n\n\n\n

😍😍😍😍<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perfect bikini body<\/p>\n\n\n\n

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️😋😋😋😍😍😍🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mmmmmmmmm take that bikini off<\/p>\n\n\n\n

😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re sooooo hot<\/p>\n\n\n\n

❤️🤗💋🌺🌹🌹💯<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Y\u2019all are dogs! She\u2019s a child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

👏😍👏😍👏😍👏😍<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ominous messages began arriving in Elissa\u2019s inbox early last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou sell pics of your underage daughter to pedophiles,\u201d read one. \u201cYou\u2019re such a naughty sick mom, you\u2019re just as sick as us pedophiles,\u201d read another. \u201cI will make your life hell for you and your daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elissa has been running her daughter\u2019s Instagram account since 2020, when the girl was 11 and too young to have her own. Photos show a bright, bubbly girl modeling evening dresses, high-end workout gear and dance leotards. She has more than 100,000 followers, some so enthusiastic about her posts that they pay $9.99 a month for more photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, Elissa has fielded all kinds of criticism and knows full well that some people think she is exploiting her daughter. She has even gotten used to receiving creepy messages, but these \u2014 from \u201cInstamodelfan\u201d \u2014 were extreme. \u201cI think they\u2019re all pedophiles,\u201d she said of the many online followers obsessed with her daughter and other young girls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elissa and her daughter inhabit the world of Instagram influencers whose accounts are managed by their parents. Although the site prohibits children under 13, parents can open so-called mom-run accounts for them, and they can live on even when the girls become teenagers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what often starts as a parent\u2019s effort to jump-start a child\u2019s modeling career, or win favors from clothing brands, can quickly descend into a dark underworld dominated by adult men, many of whom openly admit on other platforms to being sexually attracted to children, an investigation by The New York Times found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thousands of accounts examined by The Times offer disturbing insights into how social media is reshaping childhood, especially for girls, with direct parental encouragement and involvement. Some parents are the driving force behind the sale of photos, exclusive chat sessions and even the girls\u2019 worn leotards and cheer outfits to mostly unknown followers. The most devoted customers spend thousands of dollars nurturing the underage relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The large audiences boosted by men can benefit the families, The Times found. The bigger followings look impressive to brands and bolster chances of getting discounts, products and other financial incentives, and the accounts themselves are rewarded by Instagram\u2019s algorithm with greater visibility on the platform, which in turn attracts more followers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One calculation performed by an audience demographics firm found 32 million connections to male followers among the 5,000 accounts examined by The Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interacting with the men opens the door to abuse. Some flatter, bully and blackmail girls and their parents to get racier and racier images. The Times monitored separate exchanges on Telegram, the messaging app, where men openly fantasize about sexually abusing the children they follow on Instagram and extol the platform for making the images so readily available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a candy store 😍😍😍,\u201d one of them wrote. \u201cGod bless instamoms 🙌,\u201d wrote another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The troubling interactions on Instagram come as social media companies increasingly dominate the cultural landscape and the internet is seen as a career path of its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly one in three preteens<\/a> list influencing as a career goal, and 11 percent of those born in Generation Z<\/a>, between 1997 and 2012, describe themselves as influencers. The so-called creator economy surpasses $250 billion worldwide, according to Goldman Sachs, with U.S. brands spending more than $5 billion a year on influencers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Health and technology experts have recently cautioned<\/a> that social media presents<\/a> a \u201cprofound risk of harm\u201d for girls<\/a>. Constant comparisons to their peers and face-altering filters are driving negative feelings of self-worth and promoting objectification of their bodies, researchers found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the pursuit of online fame, particularly through Instagram, has supercharged the often toxic phenomenon, The Times found, encouraging parents to commodify their children\u2019s images. Some of the child influencers earn six-figure incomes, according to interviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really don\u2019t want my child exploited on the internet,\u201d said Kaelyn, a mother in Melbourne, Australia, who like Elissa and many other parents interviewed by The Times agreed to be identified only by a middle name to protect the privacy of her child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut she\u2019s been doing this so long now,\u201d she said. \u201cHer numbers are so big. What do we do? Just stop it and walk away?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In investigating this growing and unregulated ecosystem, The Times analyzed 2.1 million Instagram posts, monitored months of online chats of professed pedophiles and reviewed thousands of pages of police reports and court documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reporters also interviewed more than 100 people, including parents in the United States and three other countries, their children, child safety experts, tech company employees and followers of the accounts, some of whom were convicted sex offenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is how The Times found its sample of 5,000 mom-run accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An 11-year-old girl sits under a beach umbrella in red lipstick and a polka dot bathing suit. With her legs beneath her, she wears heart-shaped sunglasses and blows a kiss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 7-year-old girl faces the camera in athletic shorts and top. She\u2019s doing a standing split in front of a wall of roses and a neon sign reading \u201cHello Gorgeous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 10-year-old girl stands in a garden with hand on hip, wearing a Santa-themed one-piece, a sparkly Santa hat and knee-high socks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 5-year-old girl does a standing split outdoors in a two-piece leotard with a white top and hot-pink bottom. Her right hand hangs in the air, and she looks at the camera through pink glasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accounts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 9-year-old girl in a white frilly leotard<\/strong>pulls her leg over her head while arching her back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 9-year-old girl in a pink bikini top and tight shorts<\/strong> jumps with outstretched hands. She is wearing Mickey Mouse ears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 9-year-old girl in a short white top, white flared stretch pants,<\/strong>black heels and red lipstick stares back at the camera over her shoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 9-year-old girl in heavy rouge and a red two-piece leotard<\/strong>does a standing split outside, tugging her knee above her head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 9-year-old girl waves her hands and raises her leg in a pink cut-out leotard<\/strong> and leopard-print heels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 9-year-old girl does a standing split in a two-piece,<\/strong> a brown hat and brown high-heeled boots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 9-year-old girl in hoop earrings, green sports bra,<\/strong> black sneakers and red lipstick pouts at the camera with her hair blowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 9-year-old girl wearing makeup, jewelry and an orange bikini top and hot pants<\/strong> does a back-bend split outside a garage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An 8-year-old girl smiles for a headshot wearing a pink denim vest over a two-piece leotard.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An 8-year-old girl does a standing split in red lipstick, heart-shaped sunglasses and a red top<\/strong> with her upper torso facing the camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An 8-year-old girl smiles with a second-place award for a dance competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An 8-year-old girl poses in a pink bikini,<\/strong>knee-high socks and roller skates holding a giant 8 balloon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not racy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not racy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not racy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not racy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not racy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A girl in early adolescence opens a lace robe to reveal a string bikini with ruffles on top. She looks at the camera in heavy eyeshadow, making a kissy face.

Classified as racy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Super ❤️<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is such a cute swimsuit!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

👏👏👏🦄🦄🦄🐰🐰🐰<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will sleep with you in future. Remember my ID. I fall in love with you. It\u2019s Sincerely. I know you will be waiting for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mom clearly isn\u2019t monitoring the comments section<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absolutely Gorgeous!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

❤️❤️❤️Very nice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is this an advert for pedos? This content shouldn’t be posted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love that teen body..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yummie<\/p>\n\n\n\n

🤏🤏🤏🤏<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cover up you’re a little girl 😓<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are examples of posts from the mom-run accounts. To protect the identity of minors, their photos will be described rather than shown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To identify the accounts, first, reporters searched for Instagram hashtags associated with child influencers. The Times then wrote a computer program to surface similar accounts they followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only those with more than 500 followers and multiple images of children in form-fitting or revealing attire<\/strong> were included in the analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reporters used software from Microsoft and Google to classify how suggestive the images were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suggestive posts are more likely to receive \u201clikes\u201d and comments, The Times found. On average, as the accounts gather more followers, they draw a higher proportion of males, according to analysis of data from analytics firms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The accounts range from dancers whose mothers diligently cull men from the ranks of followers, to girls in skimpy bikinis whose parents actively encourage male admirers and sell them special photo sets. While there are some mom-run accounts for boys, they are the exception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some girls on Instagram use their social media clout to get little more than clothing discounts; others receive gifts from Amazon wish lists, or money through Cash App; and still others earn thousands of dollars a month by selling subscriptions with exclusive content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In interviews and online comments, parents said that their children enjoyed being on social media or that it was important for a future career. But some expressed misgivings. Kaelyn, whose daughter is now 17, said she worried that a childhood spent sporting bikinis online for adult men had scarred her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s written herself off and decided that the only way she\u2019s going to have a future is to make a mint on OnlyFans,\u201d she said, referring to a website that allows users to sell adult content to subscribers. \u201cShe has way more than that to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She warned mothers not to make their children social media influencers. \u201cWith the wisdom and knowledge I have now, if I could go back, I definitely wouldn\u2019t do it,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve been stupidly, na\u00efvely, feeding a pack of monsters, and the regret is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Account owners who report explicit images or potential predators to Instagram are typically met with silence or indifference, and those who block many abusers have seen their own accounts\u2019 ability to use certain features limited, according to the interviews and documents. In the course of eight months, The Times made over 50 reports of its own about questionable material and received only one response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meta, Instagram\u2019s parent company, found that 500,000 child Instagram accounts had \u201cinappropriate\u201d interactions every day, according to an internal study in 2020 quoted in legal proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement to The Times, Andy Stone, a Meta spokesman, said that parents were responsible for the accounts and their content and could delete them anytime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnyone on Instagram can control who is able to tag, mention or message them, as well as who can comment on their account,\u201d Mr. Stone added, noting a feature that allows parents to ban comments with certain words. \u201cOn top of that, we prevent accounts exhibiting potentially suspicious behavior from using our monetization tools, and we plan to limit such accounts from accessing subscription content.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Influencers use TikTok, too, but Instagram is easier for parents to navigate and better suited to the kinds of photos that brands want. It is also home to a longstanding network of parents and brands that predated TikTok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From time to time, Instagram removes child-influencer accounts for unspecified reasons or because people flag them as inappropriate, The Times found. In extreme cases, parents and photographers have been arrested or convicted of child exploitation, but barring evidence of illegal images, most of the activity does not draw the attention of law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many parents, Elissa, who received the threatening messages about her daughter\u2019s photos, said she protected her daughter by handling the account exclusively herself. Ultimately, she concluded, the Instagram community is dominated by \u201cdisgusting creeps,\u201d but she nonetheless keeps the account up and running. Shutting it down, she said, would be \u201cgiving in to bullies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The account\u2019s risks became apparent last spring when the person messaging her threatened to report her to the police and others unless she completed \u201ca small task.\u201d When she did not respond, the person emailed the girl\u2019s school, saying Elissa sold \u201cnaughty\u201d pictures to pedophiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Days later, the girl tearfully explained to her mother that school officials had questioned her about the Instagram account. They showed her images that her mother had posted \u2014 one of the girl in hot pants and fishnets, another in a leotard and sweatshirt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elissa had reported the blackmail to the local sheriff, but school officials only dropped the matter after an emotional interrogation of the girl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was crying,\u201d the girl said in an interview. \u201cI was just scared. I didn\u2019t understand what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n