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Earlier this week, I joined a coalition of 27 state attorneys general on a letter to Meta demanding that Instagram stop monetizing child exploitation content.
According to a February 22, 2024, Wall Street Journal article, Meta’s own staff raised alarms after Instagram enabled those running “parent-managed minor
accounts” to profit by providing “pin-up style photos of children” to male
subscribers who were “often overt about sexual interest” in children. Perhaps
worse, the article recounts how Meta staff discovered that its own “algorithms
promoted child-modeling subscriptions to likely pedophiles.” Yet when those
staff formally recommended changes, Meta refused to implement even basic
safeguards.
On the same day, The New York Times similarly reported that men in online
chatrooms frequently praised “the advent of Instagram as a golden age for
child exploitation.” That article also notes that “a top Facebook executive told
Instagram’s chief executive that unless changes were made, Facebook and
Instagram were ‘basically massive ‘victim discovery services.’’”
Meta knows that its efforts to promote Instagram influencers are creating
markets for child exploitation, but it has failed to take even the most basic
protective measures. We will not back down from holding Meta’s feet to the fire. Our children and their innocence deserve nothing less than our full resolve.
Read the letter here.
On behalf of the State of Mississippi, I sued Meta last Fall for the harm it does to children in pursuit of profit. You can read a detailed summary of our complaint, complete with quotes from internal Meta documents demonstrating that its executives know the devastating impacts they are having here.
Reining in Unelected Bureaucrats
Last week, I led a multi-state amicus brief filed in the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of U.S. Food and Drug Administration v Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, urging the Court to uphold the people’s constitutional authority to make laws through their elected officials.
At issue in this case is the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) actions
to enact a nationwide elective abortion regime without statutory authority and
without regard to the important women’s health, safety, and welfare interests
that are the primary responsibility of states. In the brief, we reminded the Court, “Congress has never enacted—and could not now enact—any such policy” and as such, “The FDA’s actions here push constitutional bounds.”
The Constitution protects liberty by leaving power with the people and by
making power accountable to the people. But through the years, unchecked, unelected bureaucrats in Washington have taken more and more of this power unto themselves, and the courts have deferred to their judgment far too often and far too much. The Supreme Court has already affirmed the people’s authority to decide hard policy issues through their elected officials. We urge the justices to reaffirm that right and rein in the outsized influence of the growing federal bureaucracy.
Protecting Mississippi Children and Families
Last month, I announced my broad legislative package to protect children’s physical and emotional well-being, affirm parents’ rights to direct their children’s upbringing, and ensure the next generation has the life skills they need to succeed.
The package includes proposals to curb vaping among underage kids, protect women by codifying the definitions of sex based words, promote parents’ fundamental rights to direct their children’s education and care, and shield children from the dangers of social media.
The pathway to Mississippi’s best future is one teeming with strong, healthy
Mississippi families. This broad package of bills is full of the tools that help families prosper and thrive in all ways, with financial security, physical health, and mental well-being. I am grateful to our partners in the Legislature who are working with us to advance these initiatives, and I look forward to working together to offer Mississippians their best future.
Advocating for Missing Children
Last week, I sent a letter, along with 21 other Attorneys General, demanding the Biden Administration address recent reports that unaccompanied migrant children in the custody of the federal government are being released into unsafe situations, including into human trafficking.
In our letter, we expressed concern over the Biden Administration’s recent revelation that it cannot locate 85,000 migrant children for which it is responsible. The letter cites a February 2023 New York Times report that states many of these children have been forced into laboring for debilitating hours under dangerous conditions, often in violation of child-labor laws and resulting in grave injury and death. Others are being sex trafficked. The letter notes that Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Inspector General recently confirmed and documented many of the issues found in the New York Times investigation, admitting that more than one-third of children’s case files were flagged with safety concerns.
The federal government has the duty to protect these innocent children. Instead, they are neglecting this responsibility, and the children are being harmed and exploited. President Biden’s own HHS is sounding the alarm that unaccompanied children are being released into compromising situations, but seems unwilling or unable to devise a strategy to address these concerns. It is time for this Administration to take responsibility for the safety and wellbeing of these children coming to our country without adult supervision. This may end up one of the greatest tragedies to come from the chaos they have created at the border.
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