Exposing Exploitation was on hiatus for the past several months but this didn't mean that our operations ceased. We needed some time to attend to various matters outside of the online worlds of exploitation that we were so heavily involved in. These investigations were taking up so much time that our resources and collective willpower depleted rapidly.
We reached the stage where it was obvious that the group's inspiration had run dry. Our focus was wavering and the enormity of investigating online child safety simply overwhelmed the members of our group. We needed a break to gather our thoughts so we could come back with a new approach.
Any new approach by Exposing Exploitation would focus on the need to navigate through risks well known to us while being wary of risks unknown and evolving. A heavy mission to pursue but one we are still committed to investigating, exposing and educating others on. If anything, there is a greater need to undertake such a mission now than there was in the past.
Exposing Exploitation observes that not much has changed during our downtime in relation to child exploitation occurring online. New risks have continued to appear in tandem with old problems still persisting and evolving in ways not understood. The online environments which children and teenagers spend increasing amounts of their daily lives on remain fraught with despite both governmental agencies and online corporations having tried to address them.
It is positive that attempts were being made to address the dangers that can be encountered online but we ask whether anything has actually changed for the better?
Recent changes to the numerous policies that trust & safety teams within social media platforms have implemented appear to be proactive. Yet all these changes only came about when the same platforms were forced to do something after intensive media backlash.
To date any effectiveness in these policy changes remain unmeasured. Any penalties imposed on big-tech so far was just a sweetheart deal so the corporations could continue to ignore the many problems on their platforms that are unsavoury at best and criminal at worst.
When looking at online law enforcement agencies, they still appear to be under-resourced with a workload that continues to increase in severity and volume. The need for such agencies is greater than ever but any proactive co-operation between social media giants and law enforcement still appears to be elusive. Why?
Social media is still teeming with numerous risks to its users. The longtime members of these sites along with the general public at large still remain unaware of what the risks are for the most part and oblivious on how to fight them or even what the best practice is in reporting illegal content/ criminal behaviours.
After only a few months away, Exposing Exploitation returns to witness the likelihood of being exploited online being greater than ever. It is now a common occurrence to encounter illegal content or criminal conduct online yet no concerted effort is made to educate the users and the public who populate these online spaces. There needs to be a renewed focus on education that helps empower the regular user navigating their way through social media platforms.
This is why Exposing Exploitation now makes a renewed commitment to #OnlineChildSafety and welcomes any other individual or group that can assist with the same. We all should be seeking to make others ask the question: "What can we do to protect ourselves online while detecting those who will exploit others?"
Exposing Exploitation's reintroduction is published to indicate our return into the wild world of the web. New angles will be pursued during this phase because we want to build a cache of resources and educational content for our members, and the public at large. We aim to make one of the most comprehensive sites with a large variety of resources because we didn't have something like this when our group first started out.
This is a crucial need in our view but there also remains a mountain of investigation and research that was not published previously.
This will be worked on in the background because it must be exposed. Everything you have seen so far has only just begun scratching beneath surface; a bewildering, dangerous and soul-destroying underworld is pulsating below all the brands and logos you know and love...
