EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MESSAGE – FEBRUARY 2024
The America’s Future team will be in Forth Worth, Texas, this Friday and Saturday for the next Get In Fight campaign in our effort to build a nationwide grassroots network of Americans armed with the knowledge and tools to combat child exploitation and trafficking. Our mission to protect children from these despicable crimes has gathered together hundreds of people to our Get In The Fight campaigns in Florida, Michigan, and Illinois thus far, and we welcome you to join us in Texas this weekend to get involved and learn what you can do in your community. Other state campaigns are planned for 2024, and we will keep you informed as details become available. I hope you take time to read this edition of the PDPC Bulletin, which includes our latest Not On My Watch podcast and an interview with Dr. Jarrod Sadulski, who will be with us in Texas. Thank you for getting in the fight with America’s Future – Mary O’Neill
Republican U.S. Senators blasted Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg last month during his testimony on Capitol Hill for facilitating sex trafficking and allowing child sexual abuse material on his social media platforms.
On Jan. 31, Zuckerberg, whose Meta is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing over whether social media companies have done enough to protect children, particularly from child sex predators.
Senator Ted Cruz highlighted that Instagram’s algorithm had connected pedophiles to accounts that advertised the sale of child porn and that some of those accounts were run by children or featured sex-trafficked kids.
“This content wasn’t just living in the dark corners of Instagram, the algorithm was helping pedophiles to find it by promoting graphic hashtags,” Cruz said.
Cruz held up a blown-up screenshot of an Instagram prompt that asked users if they want to “get resources” or “see results anyway” when browsing for child sex abuse images.
Cruz said the warning read, “these results may contain images of child sexual abuse” with an explanation underneath that gave users two choices: “Get resources” or “see results anyway.”
“Mr. Zuckerberg, what the hell were you thinking?” Cruz sternly asked.
Zuckerberg said the “basic science” behind the warning was that it was better to direct people to get help than block the content.
Cruz followed up and asked how many users clicked on the “see results anyway” button, and Zuckerberg said he wasn’t sure.
In another dramatic moment at the hearing, Senator Josh Hawley asked Zuckerberg to apologize to victims. Zuckerberg turned around and apologized to the family members of victims – some who held up photos of deceased loved ones – in the galley.
“No one should go through the things your families have suffered,” Zuckerberg said.
Senator Marsha Blackburn called out Zuckerberg as well for failing to remove content that enables sex trafficking and specifically the sale of children.
“You fail to remove content pertaining to the sale of minors,” Blackburn said. “It appears you’re trying to be the premier sex trafficking site in this country.”
Zuckerberg responded: “Senator, that’s ridiculous.”
In December of last year, New Mexico Democrat Attorney General Raul Torrez filed a lawsuit against Meta, including the company’s wholly-owned subsidiaries Facebook and Instagram, and Zuckerberg, to protect children from sexual abuse, online solicitation, and human trafficking.
“Our investigation into Meta’s social media platforms demonstrates that they are not safe spaces for children but rather prime locations for predators to trade child pornography and solicit minors for sex,” Torrez said in a press release.
The lawsuit revealed that child sex predators use pizza as a code to hide their criminal activity on Meta-owned social media platforms such as Instagram. In June of 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported that researchers found that Instagram enabled people to connect them to accounts that used terms to advertise child-sex material for sale and that pedophilic accounts use the cheese pizza emoji as pedophile code and some of these accounts “bore the indications of sex trafficking.
Furthermore, in November of 2023, the FBI confirmed pizza is a pedophile code word in an affidavit from a Texas child porn case. The FBI agent who worked on the case wrote in the FBI affidavit that the alleged child sex predator used “pizza” as a pedophile code and cited that it’s a code word used by child sex predators.
There’s overwhelming evidence that Zuckerberg’s Meta platforms have facilitated child sex trafficking and allowed CSAM. A handful of Senators have put a major spotlight on this; however, when will Congress take action that leads to actual results and consequences?
Jaeson Jones has spent a lifetime protecting his fellow Americans. He is an expert in the inner workings of massive cartel operations and speaks with authority from first-hand experience about the crisis at the southern border, warning Americans to be prepared for what’s coming next to our cities and towns as a result of the rapid increase of illegals flooding into the country.
“The cartels run it all,” said Jaeson in Episode 10 of Not On My Watch with Liz Crokin, host and investigative journalist and author. “These are not drug gangs we’re up against, which is what we’re told by the homeland security enterprise,” he explains as to the reality of cartels in the world today. “We’re up against truly something that is taking over the country of Mexico and many Central and South American countries, collaborating with Middle East terrorist organizations, long-haul smugglers, and non-state and state actors all over the world.”
The interview is a stunning reminder that America is quickly running out of time and options if a strategy to secure the border and rid the nation of cartel operators is not put into place. He knows what he is talking about. Currently CEO of Omni Intelligence and a nationally recognized authority on the Mexican cartels, his law enforcement career spans decades. He is a retired Captain in the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division and managed the daily operations of the Texas Rangers, Border Security Operations Center. He also supervised Human Intelligence (HUMINT) operations in several nations and managed intelligence lead operations for the longest 24/7 border operation in Texas history, Operation Secure Texas.
America has been infiltrated by millions of people from over 171 countries, Jaeson reports duing the interview, with evidence of “synergy among smuggling organizations, cartels, U.S.-based street gangs, and transnational organizations…Americans need to understand the breadth, scope and strength of the cartels.”
He warns citizens to “get ready for trafficking in this country as a wave and scope we’ve never seen before…Americans must understand it, and we must take it on.”
Watch Episode 10 to learn about Jaeson’s strategy to control the border crisis, his real-life experiences dealing with cartels, how these criminal enterprises use humans to feed their billion-dollar operations, and why he is dedicating his life to raising awareness of the threat posed by cartels.
To watch other Not On My Watch podcasts, click here.
Jarrod Sadulski, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the American Military University’s School of Security and Global Studies with Jarrod Sadulski, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the American Military University’s School of Security and Global Studies with over two decades in the field of criminal justice. His expertise includes training on countering human trafficking, maritime security, effective stress management in policing and narcotics trafficking trends in Latin America. He frequently conducts in-country research and consultant work in Central and South America on human trafficking and current trends in narcotics trafficking. He also has a background in business development. Dr. Sadulski is an instructor at America’s Future Get In The Fight Texas on Saturday, Feb. 24, teaching a seminar on “Navigating The Emerging Threat Of Sextortion.” We recently spoke with him about his research, why sextortion is escalating, and what parents can do to protect their children.
How did you get involved in researching and writing about human trafficking, and why?
Following my law enforcement career where I encountered human trafficking, I became involved in raising public awareness of this devastating crime through research. I’ve spent time in South America as a guest of INTERPOL and in Central America conducting human trafficking research that leads to the U.S. This research has enabled me to speak to former human traffickers about how trafficking can be mitigated from the lens of those who were once perpetrators themselves. This research led to be testifying before Congress on November 14, 2023, on human trafficking at the Southwest Border.
Child trafficking is the most despicable crime. In your professional experience and the study of child exploitation and trafficking, what have you found to be the entry point for predators?
Cartels and organized crime groups are exploiting the Southwest Border in terms of child trafficking. Sadly, unaccompanied minors entering the U.S. illegally are especially prone to being trafficked. According to a recent interview I had with a former California gang member who was once involved in sex trafficking, he said that it is common knowledge among Mexican officials along the border that children are accompanied with adults that are not their families for the purpose of child trafficking.
Can you define sextortion and why it is accelerating so rapidly?
Sextortion occurs when someone obtains nude or sexually compromising images or videos of someone; and then demands money, additional images, or other illicit demands. Both males and females are common victims. In the U.S., sextortion is the fastest-growing online crime that targets children and is growing rapidly because of advancements in technology. In some cases, criminals hack into an electronic device to access compromising images or videos. Most of the time criminals target victims online and build a rapport with victims through false promises and deceit. Social media is a major factor in the rise of sextortion.
America is known to be among the worst countries in the world for child sex trafficking. What do you believe are the primary reasons?
Factors that contribute to the child sex trafficking crisis in the U.S. include unsupervised access to social media and the internet. These are commonly used to groom children and to exploit vulnerabilities. Children who come from broken homes, homes where substance abuse exists, and runaways are especially vulnerable for sex trafficking. While many victims of child sex trafficking victims are U.S. citizens, the historic number of people coming to the United States illegally through the Southwest Border is exacerbating child sex trafficking.
How can parents and caring adults prevent and protect their children from being groomed, preyed upon, or trafficked?
The first step is warning children of the dangers that exist. It is important that children are taught at a young age about the dangers of social media. This is important because the average age of being recruited into child sex trafficking is 13. Parents and caring adults should supervise internet and social media use. They should also ensure that proper privacy settings are set on social media. Children should be taught to never accept a friend request from someone that they don’t know personally.
America’s Future Project Defend & Protect Our Children Little Flower Advisory Board have dedicated their lives to educating, helping, and inspiring others through their professional work and personal lives. As a unified team of experts and leaders of this important Project, they have pledged their time and talent to the future of America – our precious children. Our Executive Director Mary O’Neill and Board Chair General Mike Flynn lead the advisory team that includes Board member Lara Logan, Liz Crokin, Mike Smith, Lynz Piper-Loomer, Bazell and Tina Baz, Brian Gamble, Tara Lee Rodas, Silvia Almond, and Attorneys Alicia Kutzer, Ben Moore, and Bill Olson.
In this edition of the Bulletin, our PDPC advisors open their notebooks to share their “reader’s choice” selections to watch, read, listen to, and learn more about why it is critical for all Americans to stay informed and get involved in eradicating child exploitation, abuse, and trafficking in America and worldwide.
MUST READ: I’m Glad My Mom Died provides a unique perspective on the rollercoaster life of child stardom. In this memoir by Jennette Mc Curdy, McCurdy talks openly about her mother pushing her into the world of acting and Hollywood and all the struggles that go along with it. She also chronicles her time at Nickelodeon on her hit show “iCarly” under Dan Schneider of Schneider’s Bakery.
MUST WATCH: Victoria, a woman that was trafficked as a child by her mother shares her survivor story. This is truly a powerful example of strength, courage, and overcoming immense pain that was inflicted upon her by those that should have been protecting her.
MUST SEE: Inspired by true events, Don’t Say My Name tells the story of human trafficking survivor Adriana, after she bravely escape her captors. Follow her harrowing journey of survival as she navigates the road to recovery.
SPREAD THE WORD: Share the PDPC Bulletin with family members, friends, and neighbors to help raise awareness about how to prevent child exploitation and trafficking in Americans. Encourage others to join the PDPC network to expand the grassroots community of Americans, helping to end the war on children. And visit the PDPC News page for informative articles and other resources, and to watch Not On My Watch podcasts.
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE: Help support the PDPC initiative by shopping online in the AF Store. Check out the assortment of Project Defend & Protect Our Children tees for the whole family, and a wide range of accessories like coffee mugs and totes. Thank you for your support!
If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. – Matthew 18:6
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Jarrod Sadulski, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the American Military University’s School of Security and Global Studies with Jarrod Sadulski, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the American Military University’s School of Security and Global Studies with over two decades in the field of criminal justice. His expertise includes training on countering human trafficking, maritime security, effective stress management in policing and narcotics trafficking trends in Latin America. He frequently conducts in-country research and consultant work in Central and South America on human trafficking and current trends in narcotics trafficking. He also has a background in business development. Dr. Sadulski is an instructor at America’s Future Get In The Fight Texas on Saturday, Feb. 24, teaching a seminar on “Navigating The Emerging Threat Of Sextortion.” We recently interviewed him about his research, why sextortion is escalating, and what parents can do to protect their children.