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A new campaign has set its sights on Big Tech, challenging legislators to enact laws that require internet companies to more actively target and take down child sexual abuse material, which activists say is increasingly rampant on social media.
ChildFund International, an organization that focuses on child development and protection, is spearheading the#TAKEITDOWN campaign, which aims to “build public support to pressure tech companies to proactively remove child sexual abuse content from their platforms,” according to a press release announcing the launch.
The point of the video is to illustrate how anyone can potentially be a predator online, underscoring the danger for a child browsing the internet without supervision. The video directs viewers to ChildFund’s website, which has a page with further information on the prevalence of dangers that kids face online. It also features a widget that easily allows people to post on Twitter (now X) at lawmakers, asking what they plan to do to protect children.
“Children, when they do their drawings, they will depict the perpetrator as a monster,” Miller tells PEOPLE. “The video of the monster is amazing. I think that even for someone who isn’t as involved in this work as I am, so, that caregiver, that parent, an older sibling, a legislator, I think that it very accurately portrays that. And I think that people will have a reaction to that.”
ChildFund/WRTHY
“I think the public is very, very behind legislation and regulation and the support there is definitely big,” Cole says. “Just need more awareness, more education.”
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Danielle Lilly, ChildFund’s director of policy, says the campaign came about because of a lack of accountability when it came to tech companies keeping kids safe online.
“We decided that we wanted to do this public facing campaign that was front and center,” Lilly tells PEOPLE. “And the name #TAKEITDOWN really stems from taking down child sexual abuse materials and really trying to put some pressure on tech companies to recognize that this is a problem and something that they need to address.”
For some parents, like Sonya Ryan, this campaign is personal. In 2007, Ryan’s daughter, Carly, was murdered when she was 15 years old after a 50-year-old man lured her while posing as a teenage boy online.
Subsequently, Ryan started the Carly Ryan Foundation, which has set out to make the internet safer, and has helped legislation passed in her native Australia making it easier for law enforcement to combat online predators.
Now, Ryan is involved with the #TAKEITDOWN campaign in the hopes of bringing similar legislation to the United States.
“To say that this is important to me is a little bit of an understatement,” Ryan tells PEOPLE. “I’ve been calling for action from Big Tech for a number of years now.”
If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go towww.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
source: people.com
