Following bombshell reporting by the Wall Street Journal that Graham Platner has an active account on the ‘predators paradise’ app, Kik, Marsha Blackburn is pressuring Kik on kids safety.
As reported by the Hill:
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) is pressing the messaging platform Kik over its dangers to users, accusing the platform of “turning a blind eye” or “allowing” the exploitation and abuse of minors.
The letter, sent Friday and first shared with The Hill, comes a week after the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) released a new report finding the Kik app is a “predator’s paradise” and has not done enough to keep users younger than 18 years off the platform.
“The results of this investigation, while disturbing, are not shocking. Kik’s policies are designed to allow this kind of predatory behavior,” Blackburn wrote in the letter to Michael Heyward, the CEO and co-founder of MediaLab, the parent company of Kik.
According to the NCOSE report, within 12 seconds of making an account posing as a 12-year-old, they were “inundated” with sexually abusive messages from strangers.
It is not the first time the app has been scrutinized for child sexual exploitation, appearing on NCOSE’s “Dirty Dozen List” in recent years.
While Kik states it made safety changes and does not allow users younger than 18 on the platform, the center said the platform does not have age verification and allows users to message with strangers. The research group further said the platform’s sexual content filters do not work.
“Kik purports to be an 18+ platform, meaning it feels no need to implement parental controls — and it lacks age verification,” Blackburn said in the letter, adding, “Children are being abused on your platform and it appears you are doing little to stop it.”
Read more here.
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