(From Sen. Jill Carter, R-Granby)Thomas Jefferson said, “The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government.”
My goal will continue to be to collaborate and eliminate silos that we tend to work in and to bring like-minded advocates. This week’s article highlights a concern our we have been working on as explained by Susan Hickam from the Lafayette House. I hope you enjoy her explanation and want to join us in our effort to work together to pass legislation to protect our children.
Protecting the Vulnerable: Why Anti-Grooming and Sextortion Laws Are Urgently Needed
The threats facing our most vulnerable, women and children, have evolved in terrifying ways. Grooming and sextortion are no longer black market or back page issues; they are mainstream dangers that exploit trust, technology, and silence. As a society, we must respond with urgency, intentionality, clarity, and compassion.
Grooming: A Silent Prelude to Abuse
Grooming is the calculated process by which predators manipulate children into trusting them, often under the guise of mentorship, friendship, or romance. It can occur in classrooms, churches, sports teams, and increasingly, online platforms.
Child grooming is considered a federal offense under Title 18 United States Code Section 2422 (18 U.S.C. §2422). Since 2020, nine states have introduced or enacted legislation regarding criminalizing grooming: Nebraska, Illinois, Texas, Indiana, Wisconsin, Vermont, Ohio, Montana, and Mississippi.
Sextortion: A Digital Weapon of Coercion
Sextortion is a form of blackmail where perpetrators threaten to release intimate images unless victims comply with demands, often for more images or money. Tragically, this crime has led to suicides, including that of Braden Markus, a 15-year-old Ohio teen whose death inspired Braden's Law. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received 26,718 reports of financial sextortion in 2023 alone.
These crimes disproportionately target teenage boys and girls, often through gaming apps and social media. The trauma inflicted is profound: depression, anxiety, and in the worst cases, death.
The AI Threat and the Need for Cultural Change
With the increasing popularity of AI, both Grooming and Sextortion will take what should be an anticipated turn to highly target our most vulnerable, which will in turn increase the number of missing and exploited children and continue to skyrocket issues regarding mental health and suicide.
Legislation is not enough. We need cultural change. Parents need tools to understand digital threats. Schools must train staff to recognize grooming behaviors. Communities need to let go of statements like "it doesn't happen here." It is happening here. It is happening to our children. It is not a matter of when, "when" is "now." Most of all, we must de-stigmatize the meaning of victim or victimization. Many children do not report abuse because they feel complicit or ashamed. Our culture must shift from judgment to support.
A Call to Action
Lawmakers must set the stage for the support of our most vulnerable and the immediate criminalization of those who target our children. Prevention provides support and creates new expectations for our children for understanding healthy relationships and setting boundaries. Criminalization allows us to act against those who threaten our children.
Grooming and sextortion are not inevitable byproducts of the internet—they are preventable crimes. With vigilance, legislation, and compassion, we can protect the vulnerable and hold predators accountable.
6 comments:
Very thoughtful and thorough article. There are two items I would like to see added under grooming. Family’s can also have groomers within the immediate and extended families. I would also recommend adding that this can be done to both boys and girls. Both men and women can be groomers. I think a lot of people think groomers are exclusively male but we frequently see females that have violated both girls and boys in the news articles and police reports that Randy reports for the benefit of our community. The amount of sexual abuse reported on in our area by Randy is overwhelming some days and those are only the ones who have been turned in. I hate to think how many children are still being sexually abused that haven’t been reported. It literally makes me sick to my stomach to contemplate that thought. It is no wonder that our country is dealing with high amounts of drug and alcohol abuse. If these kids are not put in extensive counseling, then numbing their pain seems to be the main recourse they have left to help deal with the pain and trauma they have. This also may lead to them abusing future children and the downward spiral will continue.
Right now, there is a man, previously from our community who is on trial in Bentonville, Arkansas for sexual abusing numerous young girls. Daniel Smathers. He was a former youth pastor in a church located in Diamond Missouri, who was constantly around preteens and teens through the church and community.
She's in the groomer party though
https://www.nwahomepage.com/news/missouri-man-sentenced-to-35-years-trafficking-minors-in-benton-county/
A top Democrat has demanded to know why the Trump administration “inexplicably killed” a criminal investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged co-conspirators as he accused the justice department of a “shameful and gigantic cover-up”.
Jamie Raskin, a House judiciary committee member and congressman from Maryland, claimed the decision to end the investigation in July had shielded an alleged network of “powerful individuals accused of enabling and engaging in the massive billion-dollar sex trafficking operation” while ignoring the accounts of women exploited by Epstein.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/04/jamie-raskin-justice-department-epstein-investigation
Rush Limbaugh spent years saying he was against drugs and drug users.
Of course he was secretly a closeted drug addict while doing this...
Pubs have much to think about.....albeit, shamefully. They are currently guilty of talking out of both sides of their mouth. Trump, epstein, Maxwell, etc, etc etc....... Nice try but a swing and miss for this particular local politician.
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