Young Girls Being Kidnapped and Grooming Rife On Social Media. Is It Time For Age Verification?

A case that was originally opened 15 days ago as a missing person's case, was upped today in terms of severity, and named an abduction. Following the information that this is not the first time Maddie Thomas has gone missing and found with an adult male. Considering that even as close as only a month ago, she ran away with someone. She is from Bristol, the southwest of England, and has previously travelled to Birmingham (the Midlands), Cardiff (South Wales), London (the South East), and Bedfordshire (east) with different men. Logically it follows that this is the case again. Now, how has this managed to repeatedly happen? I realise there's an element of this that falls on the guardians, but what about social media?

This isn't a one-off rare occasion. This is far more regular than we think. Hugely popular social media platforms like Discord merely ask you your age when signing up, and never once ask for proof. Discord refuses to moderate private servers, where many of these people gather to share child pornography. Then to take it even further, many predators are joining popular friendly servers that are based on games like Overwatch, or general anime servers. It has even become a trend to expose these people and post the content on Youtube.

Whilst we don't know which social media was used for these men to come into contact with Maddie, can we honestly say that any of them have strong measures to protect children from this kind of predatory behaviour? Especially now when it's never been so easy for them to anonymously attempt to meet up with the child in person, and what has been done about it?

Another case from Discord with a 12-year-old girl being groomed by a 40-year-old man to the point of getting her to meet him. And if you thought for a second that this is only a danger to your daughter, this could also happen to your son. Children are not safe online from these people.

Predators have changed their methods in the last 20 years, and it's time we realised that. I remember being a 10-year-old boy listening to my mother talk to other parents at the school gates about reported pedofiles. It seemed like it was quite a common rumour over the years that some sort of predators were lurking around schools when we were sent home. Many of us would walk home alone, and oftentimes took shortcuts that were through forests or isolated back alleyways, our parents made sure to walk us home when these rumours were spreading. The problem that we seem to not realise is that these predators are no longer waiting outside of schools, they're waiting in the comfort of their own homes for your children to log onto social media.

You may ask, okay, so what can social media do? I'll admit, I'm no expert on the intricacies of online security. But I do see that betting apps can do basic things such as refusing to let you spend money if you aren't able to prove your age by sending in a picture of you holding your passport. I see that almost all social media has now implemented two-factor authentication, which can involve using your real phone number to verify yourself on the account. So, am I crazy for thinking that there's a chance they could add age verification for all social media? If you decide not to do that, then okay, your account shall be treated as if you're a minor, and your parents should have authority over your messaging. If an age-confirmed 50-year-old stranger suddenly tries to message someone's account, and that account is run by a minor, it should alert the minor for one, and possibly even send an alert to the parents' phone that their child has been dm'd by a 50-year-old stranger.

Again, I'm unsure of the ramifications that may come with this. But whatever they are, surely they are worth not only stopping your child from being abducted but groomed and used as material for these predator communities.