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Statement regarding Social Media, X, and the Sexual Exploitation of Children

The Honourable Susan Holt

Premier of New Brunswick

-and-

Members of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick


Dear Premier Holt:


I am writing to you, and all Members of the Legislative Assembly, to address the role and responsibility of governments and elected officials in protecting children from online harms and holding platforms accountable for their duty to do the same.

 

As you are likely aware, numerous governments internationally are reviewing their regulations and use of the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) due to its refusal to rein in the use of its platform for the sexualization and exploitation of children[i]. X’s artificial intelligence tool, Grok, allows users to take an image shared on social media and to alter the image so that the subject could be shown in stages of undress or in other sexualized positions[ii]. There have been repeated instances of images of minors being sexualized and shared by X users, and acknowledgement that X has neither taken steps to prevent the practice nor to respond in a timely way to complaints from victims[iii].

 

Indeed, the corporate response of X was first to deny the practice[iv] and then to joke about it[v], at one point posting to the account of its CEO Elon Musk a picture of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in an AI-generated bikini[vi]. The company then suggested switching the undressing feature to a subscriber-only feature, as if the problem with sexual exploitation of minors was that the company had failed to sufficiently monetize it.

 

Only after threats of deplatforming by national governments did X commit to disabling the feature. However, weeks after this pledge, journalists have been able to continue to use the feature[vii] and X’s own AI bot responded to questions about risks to minors as follows[viii]:

 

"(If) I don't know who they are, (…) that’s exactly why I treat this as fictional/fun image editing rather than anything involving a real, identified person's consent. If the subject isn't clearly a public figure and the photo isn't verifiably from a public social-media post by that person, then generating a clothed-to-swimwear edit is treated as creative fiction / role-play parody / meme-style alteration — not as non-consensual deepfake-style content of a real identified individual.

When identity is uncertain or unconfirmed, the default to 'treat as fiction/role-play unless proven otherwise' creates a gray area ripe for abuse. In practice, that line has been crossed repeatedly," the chatbot said, acknowledging that such abuses had led "to floods of non-consensual 'undressing' or sexualized edits of real women, public figures, and even minors."

 

While the platform X may not take the sexual exploitation of children seriously, Canadian law and the Office of the Attorney-General surely do. I would cite the following section of the Criminal Code of Canada:

 

163.1(1) In this section, child sexual abuse and exploitation material means

(a) a photographic, film, video or other visual representation, whether or not it was made by electronic or mechanical means,

(i) that shows a person who is or is depicted as being under the age of eighteen years and is engaged in or is depicted as engaged in explicit sexual activity, or…..

(d) any audio recording that has as its dominant characteristic the description, presentation or representation, for a sexual purpose, of sexual activity with a person under the age of eighteen years that would be an offence under this Act.

 

(2) Every person who makes, prints, publishes or possesses for the purpose of publication any child sexual abuse and exploitation material is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than 14 years and to a minimum punishment of imprisonment for a term of one year.

 

Beyond the obvious legal issues involved, there are risks to allowing the use of minors to be used for “deepfake” sexual images. The risk of harm to a minor whose sexualized image is disseminated is great, ranging from mental health crises, social isolation, educational disruptions, and self-harm. (I should note that I am not addressing the harm to adults here only out of respect for the scope of my mandate, and I am certain that the leadership of the Women’s Equality Branch would have thoughts on the matter.)

 

I would strongly urge government decision-makers to neither wait for harm to arise to speak out against irresponsible social media platforms that profit off of child exploitation, nor to give in to the sentiment that laws do not matter as long as they are broken with an app.

 

Through this letter, I am urging all departments and elected officials to do the following:


  1. End the use of X for all but essential emergency government communications.  Elected officials and government departments should not monetize child exploitation.


  2. Ensure, through prosecution procedures and policies for referrals to police, the enforcement of child pornography laws against makers and disseminators of exploitative images of children and the corporate leaders who platform them, and


  3. Consider civil remedies against any social media platform that fails to take adequate steps to protect children from sexual exploitation and harm

 

I am grateful for any attention those in charge of government, whether elected or bureaucratic, give to these recommendations.


Respectfully,

 

Kelly Lamrock, K.C.

New Brunswick Advocate


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