Recently, an online commenter asked Marlo Greer if she believed that adult stores – the ones selling explicit magazines, videos, and sex-related merchandise – should be shut down because “parents can’t keep kids out of them.” Marlo responded in a recent video. She notes that the question was really prompted by efforts to regulate the ability of children to access adult content on the Internet.
First, Marlo points out that adult stores do typically have protections in place to prevent children from coming in. Most stores require patrons to be 18 or older, and as a practical matter, most are good about enforcing that because if they don’t, the local community could make life very difficult for the store owner.
Social Media Regulations for Children Are Coming
When it comes to social media, people are asking for similar regulations. Some countries, as Marlo notes, won’t let children access social media at all. Australia is a recent example – it bars minors under the age of 16 from having access to social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. Other countries, including Denmark, France, Germany, and Spain, have either recently passed or introduced legislation that would impose similar restrictions on younger users of social media.
Restricting Children from Social Media Protects Them from Predators
This, as Marlo says, goes beyond just punishing the person who is a sexual predator, sees a child on social media as a potential target, and uses social media to connect with that child. That approach – to focus on the criminal predators – has been tried for decades and has limitations. The Catholic Church’s historical efforts to protect predator priests from the consequences of their actions by moving them around once accusations were made against them is a perfect example of the problem with focusing only on the predators.
With social media, there are additional concerns. The algorithms make using social media addictive for children (for everybody, in fact). But this means that children are going to be available on social media as targets.
By restricting the ability of children to use social media, it reduces the number of targets available for predators to connect with. And even if these restrictions don’t keep 100% of children from using social media, they will restrict some of them. That will make it more difficult for sexual predators to find targets. This, in combination with strict enforcement against the predators, will help reduce the number of children who are victims.
Compensation for Sexual Assault Survivors
Greer Law represents clients who have survived sexual assault. If you or your child has been the target of a sexual predator or has suffered a sexual assault, you may be able to recover compensation from those who are responsible for the attack. This can include not only the predator who committed the attack, but also organizations or corporations that may have helped it to happen.
We understand that the decision to sue those responsible for a sexual assault that you or your child have survived is not an easy one. That’s why we never pressure a client into making what can be a very challenging decision. Instead, we are here as a resource to give you the information you need to understand what the process will be like and to answer your questions so that you can make your decision when you are ready.
Contact Greer Law if you would like more information about bringing a lawsuit for sexual assault. Call us at 303-331-6460, or fill out our contact form for a free case evaluation.
META title: Why Restrict Child Access to Social Media | Greer Law
Description: By restricting child access to social media, we restrict the ability of sexual predators to find targets.
Some people may instinctively rebel against the idea of restricting children’s access to social media. But as Marlo Greer points out in a recent video (link in comments), there are good reasons for doing so. And if you think about it, it’s no different than prohibiting a child from walking into an adult store – something we’ve been doing for decades.
In particular, restricting a child’s ability to use social media platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and others makes it more difficult for online sexual predators to find and contact them. So while enforcing existing sex crime laws attacks the problem from the demand side, restricting children from being on social media in the first place attacks it from the supply side.
When you consider how addictive the algorithms make it to use social media, anything that makes it more difficult for a child to access these platforms will help reduce the chances that a child will end up the victim of a sexual predator.
We’d love your comments on this – and if you have questions about a particular case, message us.
