Those are some of the comments that the New York Times found on Instagram in response to the photo of a pretty nine-year-old girl posing in a bikini. Her parents posted the photo to attract attention, and they are not as rare as you might think. In one of the investigative reporting projects that periodically justifies the Times’ existence, the paper found many juvenile “Instagram influencers” whose accounts are managed by their parents. “Although the site prohibits children under 13, parents can open so-called mom-run accounts for them, and they can live on even when the girls become teenagers,” the story reports. “But what often starts as a parent’s effort to jump-start a child’s modeling career, or win favors from clothing brands, can quickly descend into a dark underworld dominated by adult men, many of whom openly admit on other platforms to being sexually attracted to children.”
Ethics Alarms has long taken the position that parents posting revealing, embarrassing or provocative photos of their children on the web without a child’s informed consent (and children cannot give informed consent) is per se unethical, and that was before even considering this disgusting phenomenon.
The Times examined thousands of such accounts with parents operating the sale of their daughters’ photos, exclusive chat sessions and even offering their girls’ worn leotards and cheerleading outfits to followers. It’s profitable, for the parents, and the girls don’t understand the implications of what they have been thrust into. Some customers—pedophiles—- spend thousands of dollars nurturing the underage relationships. A demographics firm hired by the Times found 32 million connections to male followers on the 5,000 accounts examined by the paper.
This is all ethics rot, an unforeseen consequence of the World Wide Web colliding with the same unethical instincts that prompt parents to guide their young children into modeling, acting, gymnastics and other sports for their vicarious pleasure and profits. Here is the worst news in the piece:
“The troubling interactions on Instagram come as social media companies increasingly dominate the cultural landscape and the internet is seen as a career path of its own. Nearly one in three preteens lists influencing as a career goal, and 11 percent of those born in Generation Z, between 1997 and 2012, describe themselves as influencers. The so-called creator economy surpasses $250 billion worldwide, according to Goldman Sachs, with U.S. brands spending more than $5 billion a year on influencers.”
What the Times found is not an internet problem but an irresponsible, incompetent, greedy and abusive parent problem that has been around as long as there have been families. Social media only is giving it a new and revolting place to thrive. I was especially annoyed by the response of one of the mother/pimps whose daughter has been promoted on the web from a young age. “But she’s been doing this so long now,” the mother says. “Her numbers are so big. What do we do? Just stop it and walk away?”
Yes, you stupid, stupid woman. Just stop it.
Do read the whole piece. It is long and horrifying. This link lets you avoid the paywall.
Ethics Alarms 
It is rampant and insidious. And it’s not just Instagram. It’s Facebook, TikTok, Youtube and even Pinterest. Yes, pedophiles are now hanging out on Pinterest and engaging with children there. One only has to look at the number of times a Tiktok video of a young child doing something “cute” is shared: it’s in the multiple 10s of thousands. And when I say young, I’m talking 4 and 5 years old.
These same 4 and 5 year olds have Amazon wish lists where their “followers” can buy them gifts off the list. The mom-ager will then take a video of the child modeling the most recent gift for the admirer who bought it. Heck, some of these toddlers have accounts that are “members only.” These parents are whoring out their children.
There are a few heroes out there, doing the work of calling out – in the platform itself – not only the parents but also those leaving sexually loaded comments for a 5 year old. A little internet sleuthing and the commenters real name is made public. But it’s like peeing in the ocean, unfortunately.
The mind simply boggles that parents would do this to their children.
My wife was walking through a local mall with our son (who was about a year old at the time). A fellow approached her, inquiring if she would like to meet for a possible baby modeling shoot. I am happy to report that she beat the murder charges but we are still dealing with the wrongful death case.
jvb
My question is “Where did all these pedophiles come from?” I remember hearing the conspiracy theory in the early 2000’s that the world is run by influential pedophiles. I was aware that there were pedophiles, I had even seen people promote pedophilia in NAMBLA through the LGBTQIA++ agenda. However, I assumed this was a very small, vocal group (much like trans people were just few years ago). Then, it kept popping up over and over again. British, Spanish, and German high officials were caught in pedophile scandals. We had the Epstein affair, which seems like a government-run pedophile ring. Every scandal now seems to involve a pedophile angle. The Tiffany Henyard disaster in Dalton Illinois has her hiring a man convicted of raping 5 girls and she hired him as a code-enforcement officer who is allowed to enter people’s property.
The military has to get in on it too. A Lt. Col. pled guilty to placing a camera in the dressing room of a clothing store that focused on teen girls. He was caught retrieving the camera from the dressing room in a sting operation. It was turned over to the military in hopes that he would get a more severe sentence. They are seriously disciplining enlisted for merely getting multiple complaints of sexual harassment (SHARPing). However, for a command rank officer who is teaching college students in a ROTC program, he was merely reprimanded and reassigned to administrative roles that don’t directly interact with young people. No imprisonment, no reduction in rank, no dishonorable or even general discharge. No registering as a sex offender. He just gets a reprimand, a reassignment, and he can retire with full pension and benefits when he wants to with full rank.
So, why are there pedophiles everywhere now? Is this related to why 30+ % of people under 25 are now homosexual or trans? It seems that these are social phenomenas.
A whole bunch of pedophiles and ephebophiles commented on a Daily Caller article.
https://ethicsalarms.com/2016/05/02/yecchh-the-daily-caller-and-its-commenters-cheer-on-sexual-predator-teachers/
But where did they all come from? Were they always there, but were kept in check by laws and societal norms that no longer exist? Have they been created by people like this mother who are encouraging it?
I look at the number of coaches and teachers molesting children and it seems unreal. When I was in school, there was this 1 counselor who tried to ‘buddy up’ with students and it was really suspicious. However, I never heard of anything actually happening. I heard a lot about teachers who were alcoholics, using drugs, and having affairs, so it wasn’t like there was an absence of gossip about teachers but not that. Now, it seems to be multiple people at each school.
’She got slaughtered all through primary school,” said Kaelyn, the mother in Melbourne. “Children were telling her, ‘We can’t play with you because my mom said too many perverts follow you on the internet.’
This is the same mother Jack quoted above saying ‘ What do we do? Just stop it and walk away?’ When you have to -I’ll your daughter out of school and home school her, it still not enough to make them stop?