John R. Houk
© April 21, 2014
A contributor to my blogs Justin Smith put me on a Causes.com petition list. I am glad he did. The petition pertains to kiddie porn that is running rampant on Facebook. When I did some brief research on the subject I discovered that Facebook was beginning to raise notice since at least 2010.
I thought to myself, “My God! I use Facebook extensively.”
I am ashamed to say I have simply not paid attention to the immorality on a child’s level flowing through social media like Facebook. I have not checked to see how long this particular petition has been floating around. My suspicion is for some time. I don’t care, if a long time petition is continuing to expose the kiddie porn problem that is happening in social media – Then Most Excellent. I also discovered that Facebook is not sole perpetrator of social networking promoting kiddie porn. I found a list of Internet vehicles disseminating child smut in near indiscriminate fashion. The story with the list is from a tech blog and is excerpted below:
Congratulations to Verizon, Sony, Facebook, Google and Yahoo: Your products have been named as the ones most responsible for corroding young American minds. Faith-based anti-porn advocacy group Morality in Media on Thursday announced its titillatingly titled “Dirty Dozen List” that names and shames all of the worst “pornography facilitators” in the United States.
The group gave Verizon the top honor among tech companies on its list and said that the firm “pushes porn into our homes now through hardcore pay-per-view movies on FIOS, smartphones, and tablets and as an Internet Service Provider with insufficient filtering options.” As for Facebook, Morality in Media said that the pride of Mark Zuckerberg “has become a top place to trade pornography, child pornography and for sexual exploitation.” The group acknowledges that “Facebook’s guidelines prohibit such behavior” but adds that “the company is doing little to enforce them.”
And what of Sony? Well, Sony’s PlayStation gaming console offers “live-streaming abilities [that] are filling thousands of homes with live porn.” Google has “an empire that thrives on porn,” meanwhile, and Yahoo’s Tumblr “bombards users with porn” and has filters that don’t work.
While all of these companies are certainly worthy honorees on Morality in Media’s list, we’re a tad surprised that the group overlooked Snapchat, the mobile app that has sparked the now-thriving selfie porn trend. Oh well, there’s always next year.
Morality in Media’s full press release follows below.
[Blog Editor: For brevity’s sake you can go to the BGR article that has the full press release from Morality in Media; however the being the good Conservative that I am, I will excerpt the part of the press release that correctly harangues Attorney General Eric Holder for not enforcing porn laws. Bold Emphasis above is mine.]]
Morality in Media Launches Annual Dirty Dozen List for 2014
…
“Once again Attorney General Eric Holder tops our Dirty Dozen List for his support of pornographers over children and families,” said Patrick A. Trueman, President of Morality in Media. “As the pandemic of harm from pornography grows, Holder gives criminal pornographers the green light to proceed by stopping all enforcement of federal obscenity laws.”
…
“These Dirty Dozen companies profit daily from the sexual exploitation of others and our campaign against them will not stop until their exploitation stops. Many of them may be in violation of current, enforceable U.S. obscenity laws that prohibit the distribution of obscene or hardcore pornography,” said Dawn Hawkins, Morality in Media’s executive director.
For more information on this campaign, go to the Dirty Dozen website. The full, updated list includes:
Attorney General Eric Holder – Mr. Holder refuses to enforce existing federal obscenity laws against hardcore adult pornography, despite the fact that these laws have been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court and effectively enforced by previous attorneys general.
Verizon – Verizon pushes porn into our homes now through … READ ENTIRETY (An honor like no other: Verizon, PS4, Google named top porn ‘facilitators’ by religious group; By Brad Reed; BGR; 2/27/14 1:31 PM)
JRH 4/21/14
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Sign the Petition to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook
By Heroes Rising
Unsure of Initiation Date
As a Facebook user, I was appalled to recently learn of the extent of child pornography on Facebook. I was even more disturbed to learn that Facebook does not currently have a comprehensive or effective strategy to prevent or address crimes against children on the site.
Keeping children safe from sexual abuse should be of primary concern for Facebook as a responsible, ethical, publicly traded, and law-abiding company. Therefore, I ask Facebook to take the following steps:
- Devote sufficient financial, technological, and personnel resources technology necessary to prevent these images, videos, and profiles from being posted, at no less than 0.05% of annual profits;
- Establish a Facebook-initiated user reporting system for child abuse material within the existing abuse reporting system, with an option to directly contact law enforcement and a transparent strategy to investigate those reports;
- Develop and maintain an open channel of communication with INTERPOL, the FBI, and the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children, including designated Facebook liaisons to all entities;
- Remove files of identified child pornography from Facebook servers, so that those images are no longer accessible via direct linking or cached web browsers; and
- Designate a Facebook staff member whose sole duties are oversight of Facebook's child pornography reduction efforts, including technology and software acquisition, collaboration with law enforcement and NGOs, and prevention efforts.
As a Facebook user, I strongly encourage you to take these steps. By refusing to take action to address child pornography on Facebook, the company will be implicated in the facilitation of this heinous crime, and thus alienate millions of users.
Signed,
Heroes Rising
Facebook is a household name for millions of people around the world who use it to make friends, share pictures, and discuss common interests. But increasingly, those people include pedophiles who are using Facebook to share images of child pornography and sell kids for sex.
Along with others, Men Against Prostitution and Trafficking (MENAPAT.org) began to uncover the extent of child pornography on Facebook beginning in 2010 – and it's massive. In the course of their research, MENAPAT discovered thousands of false profiles created each month featuring child pornography and code words used to connect with other pedophiles. In one day-long sweep alone, a MENAPAT member found over 1,400 images of child pornography, from toddlers up to 14-year-olds.
Child pornography on Facebook primarily manifests through closed groups created by pedophiles to share photos and videos of abused children and through profiles of abused children, created by their pimps or abusers. Often, specific sex acts can be "ordered" on Facebook, and can include extreme violence and heinous brutality.
Despite the severity and prevalence of child pornography on Facebook, the company has not implemented effective policies or procedures to prevent child pornography or cooperate with law enforcement to report illegal images. It's time Facebook took child pornography on their site seriously, and made it their responsibility to stop facilitating these crimes.
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By The Force Facebook Team
URGENT: Facebook is Trying to End This Cause.
This Petition and your "Demand Cards" are sending a strong message to Facebook. Apparently, they have heard you . . . and they are scared.
Once again, their response is to ignore the problem and eliminate the voices of those demanding justice – Your Voice.
Causes.com is an incredible ally in our campaign to end the continual posting of illicit images and videos of children on Facebook. Recently, Facebook informed the folks at Causes.com that they have been receiving our "Demand Cards." (Though we have attempted to reach Facebook directly, they have never contacted us.) Facebook also told Causes.com that they have "great resources" that "meet and exceed all of (the) requests from the petition."
Not true. Our demand is that Facebook BLOCKS all illicit images and videos of children. Allowing pedophiles to post them at will and then dealing with the illegal posting in a lackluster manner without reporting each offense to law enforcement is not acceptable.
Facebook has been denying this crime and feeding the same empty responses to the media, US Federal Legislators and human rights advocates for years. Their answer is to point to policies and procedures which, given the evidence we see every day, does not work. See the evidence here: http://vimeo.com/41583927
WARNING: For more live evidence simply put the following terms in the Facebook "Search" Tab: "sex movies" "young nude" "pedo bear" "hentai girls" And these are just the English language search terms. People from all over the world use these terms to meet each other on Facebook and share illicit images and videos of children.
Also, award winning journalist Lydia Cacho has written an excellent article about the issue. Please read it here: http://www.lydiacacho.net/23-10-2012/facebook-y-el-porno/
Now, with over 1.2 million members of this Cause and more of your "Demand Cards" arriving at their corporate offices, Facebook is suddenly declaring that "they are doing a thorough job of maintaining the safety of (Facebook)" and that we should "move on to another campaign."
No. In fact, we are now redoubling our efforts to expose this issue to the world.
But there is a risk. Because this Cause is built on a platform not controlled by Men Against Prostitution and Trafficking, the group organizing this campaign, it can be eliminated at any time. Clearly, that is what Facebook is trying to do. Rather than address the problem of pedophiles openly using their site to abuse children they would rather silence those who want justice.
If this Cause is suddenly terminated, please continue to follow our work at http://stopchildpornonfacebook.com/ AND http://www.change.org/petitions/block-all-child-pornography-from-facebook
For now, please send a message directly to Facebook by posting this Petition onto your Facebook page. (http://www.causes.com/causes/580526-force-facebook-to-block-all-child-pornography/actions/1703246)
Tell your entire network of friends that you will not tolerate illicit images or videos of children and that YOUR VOICE will not be silenced.
Thank you,
The Force Facebook Team
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Finding a Petition to End Kiddie Porn on Facebook
John R. Houk
© April 21, 2014
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Sign the Petition to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook
Cause Invitee: Justin Smith
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