Originally Published at The Daily Caller
By Mary Margaret Olohan
Snapchat and Teen Vogue are encouraging teenagers to create “child pornography” during the coronavirus quarantine through sexting, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation said.
The center, which fights child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking and the public health harms of pornography urged Teen Vogue on Wednesday to stop encouraging teens “to create child sexual abuse material (child pornography) by sexting during quarantine.”
The group is also pressing Snapchat to stop promoting Teen Vogue’s messages through Snapchat’s Discover feature, which offers news and video content. The social media app, which is popular among teenagers, boasted 218 million daily active users worldwide as of the fourth quarter of 2019. Nearly half of those users who watch the Discover feature watch it daily.
“Snapchat and Teen Vogue are playing right into sexual predators’ hands,” said National Center on Sexual Exploitation executive director and senior vice president Dawn Hawkins in a statement.
She added: “With the likely surge of young viewers on Snapchat due to quarantine, it is socially irresponsible for Snapchat Discover to encourage minors to self-produce underage pornography (i.e. child sexual abuse materials), thereby increasing their vulnerability to sexual predators.”
NCSE noted that encouraging teenagers to sext is encouraging minors to create and distribute child pornography, also called child sex abuse material.
