He replied back, ‘I don’t post porn.’
‘Why did you start this Instagram account?’
He immediately blocked me.
Let me tell you, I could not sleep. I was scared to tell anyone about this. I was sure everyone would be angry that I didn’t protect these images from an online predator. The team parents would be upset. I felt so guilty. Again, I could not sleep. I stayed quiet the first day and mulled this over. Somehow, this was my fault.
I decided to report it to Instagram. I had to get on my older son’s Instagram. Yes, my older son has an Instagram account that was ONLY on my phone and only I knew the password. We, together, would post some of his amazing artwork and no pictures of himself, and made it private. I used his account to get back onto the creep’s account. He instantly let me back in.
There’s three dots on the right of the account where you can report a picture. I started reporting them, indicating they were inappropriate, child porn, and copyright infringement (there’s not many choices). I also messaged FBI Tip Line and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Instagram wrote back to me the next day and requested I submit my son’s birth certificate or other proof that the pictures were my son. I wrote back that I was unwilling to send a copy of his birth certificate online. And even if I did send his birth certificate, what does that prove? The only way Instagram was willing to take down a stolen picture of my son off of someone’s pervy site was if I proved he was my child. So, it’s okay for someone to post the picture, but a mom would have to go through a lengthy process to get it taken down?
The next day, I decided to get freakin’ MAD! This [jerk] violated not only my family, but thousands of others! Then, it hit me… this site was merely an advertisement. Holy crap. It’s an advertisement to pedophiles out there to join together and make a network. This site was a gateway to something so much more sinister on the other side. The creep who started the page has a KIK messenger account that is completely untraceable. This is how he lures people off the page to have a ‘special chat’ or other services.
I decided to open up to my husband about what happened. I showed him the screen grabs I took, and he was angry (not at me). He said I did the right thing.
I called the Chula Vista Police Department and put in a report. I knew it was not going to go anywhere, but I wanted to say that I filed something. I did something. The police officer came to my house, got my statement. I sent him all the screen grabs and information I had. He told me that since it’s not child pornography, they simply cannot do anything. The report is still there, but this person did not technically break any laws. There were no nude pictures, no blatant wording that says there’s a web cam or other services. It obvious to the police officer, obvious to me, and obvious to everyone if they looked that this site was exactly that, a meeting place for pedophiles. But it’s not against Instagram’s ‘Community Guidelines,’ or the law.
So, then I went to Facebook and made a public post about all the information I had on this account. I posted it everywhere. My mom’s groups, wrestler’s groups, photography groups, you name it. I outlined and called out this account. From there, over 100 of my friends went to the account and blocked him or reported it as child pornography. They all received this:
Some parents found that their child’s accounts were being followed by this creep and a few others that I listed. Some even found a picture of their own child on the account! I received many instant messages from concerned parents that wanted to tell me their stories and thanking me for saying something. At least I was able to help in this way, even if it’s small.
A friend of mine reached out to me with a connection to a local CBS news channel 8 and asked if I could be interviewed. Yes! Of course. I already opened Pandora’s Box, why not do it on television? The news crew came to my house and we went through the story again. They did such a great job putting it together. Afterwards, the reporter reached out to Instagram, who then shut down the creeps’ ilikestrongkids50 account. An Instagram representative told the reporter that they will shut down the account because it goes against community guidelines. Wait, what?! About 100 of my friends reported this account and it said it didn’t. Huh. Weird.
CBS 8 did another report on hashtagging your child’s picture to keep them safe. Well, safer. Again, they did a fantastic job. What I noticed from the followers of this creep’s account is that they track certain hashtags that are seemingly innocent, something that I see many parents hashtag their kids photos. When you hashtag, this gives predators easier, faster access to the images they want.
#strongkid #kidwithabs #boymodel #musclekids #rippedkid #musclekid #bathtime #pottytraining and so so so many others.
A day later, I got a text from a stranger on my Facebook. She said she saw me on the news and decided (on her own) to message this guy on his KIK account. She told him he was a creep and should be charged with child pornography and he replied:
Then she sent it to me to let me know. Of course, I knew that he was just going to do that. I posted this response to my Facebook page and later that afternoon the news station was back to my house. I didn’t know what else I could say about it, the guy is a creep. I’ve reported it to the FBI, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Instagram, local police, all my friends, family, and social network. What more could I do? But yet again, the news station did a great story about it.