[rexgallorum2]

This is nothing but covert advertising. Almost everyone here seems to have missed this fact. Re-read the 'article' carefully. This text was carefully crafted to go viral by scaring parents.

Again, this is not about a 'police sting' or anything like that. It is about a 'project' (stunt) carried out by a private company that sells software for monitoring kids. The author works for the same company.

[SpicyLemonZest]

The text was certainly crafted to go viral (what in the world is Pete providing security against?), but the claim they're making is still very troubling. If a typical 11 year old girl is getting multiple messages from pedophiles every time she posts a picture on Instagram, that doesn't fit my understanding at all and has very serious implications.

We shouldn't rule out that they're being substantially misleading, but I don't think we should just assume that either.

[nikanj]

There's about 25 million kids between 12 and 17 in the US ( https://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/101-child-popul...)

I find it dubious that each one of them gets over 50 predators attacking them the moment the post a selfie on Instagram. Either a small number of pedophiles would be targeting thousands of kids per hour, or there are millions of pedophiles.

The basic premise of the article rings true (posting selfies on can lead to getting attacked by predators), but the numbers are just ludicrous.

[SpicyLemonZest]

I think you’re right. My intuitive guess of how many teenage kids there are would have been a full order of magnitude lower. At that count, even adjusting for not everyone being on Instagram, I agree there’s no way the numbers can check out.

[rexgallorum2]

I think this company is selling panic and hysteria to make a quick buck. The whole thing could well be made up, pure fiction. Their claims aren't worth a discussion.

I don't doubt that this stuff happens. The web is full of filth and excrement. But using the language of moral panic to sell a dubious service is just crass.

If we must wade into the debate about whether kids should have access to it, my answer would be a resounding no. I know of ten year old girls with smartphones. I try to tell people that those things are portals to hell, and they look at me like I have two heads.

The web has morphed into a raging monster, and 'mobile devices' are the devil incarnate.

We should step back from the abyss, or at least refrain from looking into it, lest we discover that we are but monsters ourselves, and the abyss is only a mirror.

[bsder]

Yeah, I have trouble believing this article isn't quite a lot of fiction. If trapping pedophiles is this easy, the police need to get off their asses and do their damn job.

The fact that it takes three letter agencies multiple years and inter-country coordination tells me that it isn't quite this simple.

[elyobo]

I don't think anyone is missing it, it's just that it's too obvious to warrant discussion (they article does not try to hide that) and beside the point unless your specific allegation is not that it's advertising, but that it's fabricated.