Kyo

It’s time for Snapchat to take sexting, cyberbullying, and sexual exploitation on its app seriously.

Within the last decade, cyberbullying has emerged as a pernicious new form of bullying that breaks the spirits of our nation’s children. It has been deemed a public health issue[1] and is a matter of serious concern to our organization.

We are especially concerned by evidence which shows that some cyberbullying activity involves sexual harassment and coercion. It is our view that much of the activity referred to under the guise of “sexting” actually […]

The sex trade is fundamentally predatory.

Systems of sexual exploitation (e.g. strip clubs, illicit massage parlors, legal brothels, online prostitution websites, etc.) operate using a business model that feeds off of people’s vulnerabilities and traumatic events such as childhood sexual abuse, child sex trafficking, child neglect, sexual abuse within the foster care system, homelessness, and economic insecurity. These adverse experiences are often compounded by additional marginalization and vulnerabilities created by young age, racial and gender discrimination, learning disabilities, and/or immigrant or indigenous minority status. Pimps (the functional equivalents of sex traffickers) and sex buyers exploit these vulnerabilities for their personal gain—pimps […]