Category Archives: Abuse of Power

June 15, 2025 · 1:00 am

CSAM Apps – Monetizing the Sexual Exploitation of Children Online, Part 2

The sale of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) has spawned a highly lucrative industry. Social media platforms have overlooked this in the interest of profit.  An internal survey conducted at Meta indicated 13% of users between the ages of 13 and 15 receive at least one sexual solicitation per week [1A]. 

In 2023 NHK News partnered with Tansa to investigate Album Collection (a photos sharing app available in Japan that once topped Apple’s App Store in sales) [1B].  Album Collection was self-described as a tool for sharing family memories and graduation trip photos.  In fact, it offered over a thousand items of child pornography for sale. 

Identifying the true owner/operator of Album Collection proved extremely difficult [2].  But the money trail leading to social media platforms like Apple and Google was clear [1C]. 

An item of CSAM was posted to the app, and assigned a password which could be obtained for a price.  Viewers of the app were then provided a key for $1.10.  The original poster received $0.10 of this amount.  The app owner/operator received the remaining $1.  However, fully $0.30 of that $1 was routed to the social media platform. 

Other CSAM apps operate in similar fashion. Assuming the financial arrangement is comparable, some 30% of the billions in profits from child pornography go directly to social media platforms like Meta.  Meanwhile, when one CSAM app is taken down, others rapidly take its place. Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under Abuse of Power, Child Abuse, Child Molestation, Emotional Abuse, Justice, Law, Neglect, Physical Abuse, sex trafficking, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Assault

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

June 8, 2025 · 1:00 am

CSAM Apps – Monetizing the Sexual Exploitation of Children Online, Part 1

Image “facebook testify zuckerberg”, Author <a href=”http://www.thoughtcatalog.com” rel=”noreferrer nofollow”>www.thoughtcatalog.com</a> (CC BY-SA 2.0 Generic)

“Underlying every sexually explicit image or video of a child is abuse, rape, molestation, and/or exploitation. The production of CSAM creates a permanent record of the child’s victimization.”

-US Dept. of Justice [1A]

The US Dept. of Justice defines Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) as any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a minor under the age of 18, in other words, child pornography [1B].  Visual depictions would include photos, videos, live streaming, and digital or computer generated images (including AI-generated content) indistinguishable from an actual minor [2].

Scope 

Due to rapid technological changes, online child sexual exploitation is daily increasing in scale and complexity [1C].  The violence and sadistic content depicted in CSAM have increased as well [1D].

Child pornography is readily available through virtually every internet technology, including social networking platforms, file-sharing sites, gaming devices, and mobile apps [1E]. 

On the Dark Web, where anonymity and encryption make it more difficult to trace perpetrators, a single active website dedicated to the sexual abuse of children had over 2.5 million registered users as of 2021 [1F].  The same year the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) received nearly 30 million reports of suspected online child exploitation [1G]. 

Smartphones

Modern smartphones are the ideal child exploitation tool for offenders [1H].  Smartphones can be used to photograph, record, or watch live child sexual abuse.  They can both store child pornography, and access such stored pornography remotely.  They can connect to other offenders worldwide to receive or distribute child pornography, through an ever expanding variety of apps. Continue reading →

17 Comments

Filed under Abuse of Power, Child Abuse, Child Molestation, Emotional Abuse, Neglect, Physical Abuse, sex trafficking, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Assault

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

May 4, 2025 · 1:00 am

Barred from School

Young Afghan girl coloring at Bagram Air Field on International Women’s Day, Source https://www.dvidshub.net/, Author Spc. Kristina Gupton (PD as work of US federal govt.)

Afghanistan is the only nation where women and girls are barred from secondary and higher education. 

According to a January 2025 report by the Afghanistan Centre for Human Rights, Islamic madrasas (which focus on religious education) are being used to indoctrinate the women and girls seeking whatever limited education they may obtain there [1].  Textbooks approved by the Taliban promote its political and military goals, along with enforcing wearing of the hijab. 

A few madrasas do now teach languages, mathematics, geography, chemistry, and physics.  However, all medical training for women has been banned, including midwifery and first aid.

—

[1]  BBC, “Teenage Afghan girls were banned from school – now these classes are their only option” by Mahjooba Nowrouzi, 3/24/25, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c36wyzl3n00o?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us.

The “Take It Down” Act has been passed, making the non-consensual publishing or posting of intimate imagery involving deepfakes or revenge porn a federal crime.

See, https://apnews.com/article/take-it-down-deepfake-trump-melania-first-amendment-741a6e525e81e5e3d8843aac20de8615.

…

Actor/comedian/podcaster Brandon Russell has been charged with oral rape, sexual assault, and indecent assault in the UK stemming from incidents involving 4 different women alleged to have occurred between 1999 and 2005. 

A civil suit has, also, been brought against Russell in the US for alleged sexual assault on the set of the film “Arthur” in 2011.

See, https://abcnews.go.com/International/russell-brand-charged-rape/story?id=120485133 and https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/nov/04/russell-brand-faces-sexual-assault-lawsuit-in-new-york for details.

FOR MORE OF MY ARTICLES ON POVERTY, POLITICS, AND MATTERS OF CONSCIENCE CHECK OUT MY BLOG A LAWYER’S PRAYERS AT: https://alawyersprayers.com

14 Comments

Filed under Abuse of Power, Child Abuse, Child Molestation, domestic abuse, domestic violence, Emotional Abuse, Neglect, Physical Abuse, Sexual Abuse

Tagged as , , , ,

April 6, 2025 · 1:00 am

Light from Darkness, Part 2

“One Spring, Gurs Camp” (1941) by Karl Robert Bodek and Kurt Low, Yad Vashem Museum, Israel, Image courtesy of Yad Vashem Collection

WARNING:  Graphic Images

Abuse comes in many forms.  From 1933 to 1945 in Nazi Germany it was governmental, with the goal being complete extermination of the Jews [1].

The artworks comprising the Yad Vashem Collection were created by artists (Jewish and non-Jewish) between 1939 and 1945 to provide a living testament of the Holocaust [2A].  A hundred works from the collection were exhibited in Germany in 2016, just three years after the Alternative for Germany (AfD) was founded – a far Right party whose leader, Björn Höcke denigrated the Memorial to Murdered Jews of Europe [3][4].

Art in the concentration camps served simultaneously as a witness, a means of self-assertion, and an expression of optimism [2B].

The works are both heart wrenching and awe inspiring.  In “One Spring, Gurs Camp” (above), the barbed wire depicts imprisonment and loneliness.  The butterfly and the mountains in the background, however, suggest hope. 

One of the two artists who collaborated on “One Spring”, 28 y.o. Kurt Low, was released and able to flee to Switzerland.  The other, 37 y.o. Karl Bodek, was ultimately murdered at Auschwitz. Continue reading →

15 Comments

Filed under Abuse of Power, Child Abuse, Child Molestation, Christianity, domestic abuse, domestic violence, Emotional Abuse, human trafficking, Neglect, Physical Abuse, Rape, Religion, sex trafficking, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Assault, Slavery, Violence Against Women

Tagged as , , , , ,

February 2, 2025 · 1:00 am

Dreadful Sins

Portrait of Gisèle Pelicot by Ann-Sophie Qvarnström as an illustration for Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.O International)

WARNING:  Graphic Images

“Madam, we the women of East London feel horror at the dreadful sins that have been lately committed in our midst.”

–Petition to Queen Victoria by 4000 impoverished women of Whitechapel

In fear for their lives, the women of London’s Whitechapel petitioned Queen Victoria for relief when Jack the Ripper was at large [1][2].  The Ripper is known to have murdered 5 women, but the exact number of his victims is uncertain [3].  These women were all characterized as prostitutes, though they may simply have been destitute women.

Serial Killings

Despite his infamy, Jack the Ripper was not the first serial killer of women.  Nor will he be the last.  The savagery of such attacks will not be addressed here. 

There are, however, men who have no compassion for women — whether they ever become serial killers or not.  They do not recognize women as human beings, and feel entitled to use and degrade them.  A few celebrity predators come to mind, though fame is not a prerequisite.

Sex Trafficking

Worldwide, of course, there are sex traffickers who exploit women by force, fraud, and coercion for their own financial gain.  Drugs are commonly employed to secure control over women in the sex trade. 

Rape by Proxy

Dominique Pelicot, aged 71, went a step further.  Pelicot was recently convicted in France of repeatedly drugging Gisele (his wife of 50 years), then recruiting 50 different men to rape her over a 10 year period [4A].  The men (who, themselves, ranged in age from 26 to 68) were likewise convicted, though some claim they believed they were taking part in an erotic game [5].

Pelicot took thousands of videos of these men abusing his unconscious wife.  Though she was asleep during the assaults, Gisele Pelicot suffered large gaps in memory, hair and weight loss, as side effects of the drugs her husband was surreptitiously administering to her [4B].  She feared she was developing Alzheimer’s Disease or a brain tumor. Continue reading →

24 Comments

Filed under Abuse of Power, Child Abuse, Child Molestation, Christianity, domestic abuse, domestic violence, Emotional Abuse, Justice, Law, Neglect, Physical Abuse, Poverty, Prostitution, Rape, Religion, sex trafficking, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Assault, Violence Against Women

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

August 4, 2024 · 1:00 am

The Toxic Workplace

File:Workplace Bullying.jpg

Workplace bullying image, Author GwenFord (CC BY-SA 4.0 International)

The victims of childhood abuse may remain vulnerable to abuse as adults in a variety of circumstances.  Domestic abuse is one example.  Workplace abuse is another.

Hostile Workplace

Abusive conduct in the workplace can range from insults or derogatory statements, humiliating public censure, bullying and threatening remarks, to sabotage of an employee’s work product/professional growth/reputation, sexual harassment, and blatant discrimination [1][2][3][4]. 

Actions that intimidate, belittle or degrade individuals, foster a toxic environment.  They often occur as part of a pattern of behavior.

Dangers of Workplace Abuse

Aside from the psychological impact negative behaviors like these have, they can lead to injuries on the job and outright violence — the third leading cause of occupational fatalities, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics [5]. 

Legal Rights

Employees are entitled under the law to a workplace free of harassment and hostile conduct.

Unfortunately, some employers turn a blind eye to such behavior, rather than actively discouraging it.  As a result, employees in a certain category (for example, Hispanics or young women) may routinely be targeted for abuse.

While this can expose an employer to legal liability, the more important question is how an employee should respond. Continue reading →

9 Comments

Filed under Abuse of Power, bullying, Child Abuse, Child Molestation, domestic abuse, domestic violence, Emotional Abuse, Law, Neglect, Physical Abuse, Sexual Abuse, Violence Against Women

Tagged as , , , ,

May 26, 2024 · 1:00 am

Rape as a Weapon II

WARNING: Graphic Images

“‘Neighbourhoods and homes were continuously attacked, looted, burned and destroyed,’ especially those where Masalit and other African communities lived, and their people were harassed, assaulted, sexually abused, and at times, executed [1A].”

The United Nations confirms that rape is being used as a weapon against women and girls in the Sudanese civil war [1B][2A].

NGOs describe rape as an everyday occurrence, with both warring parties participating, and numbers estimated as high as 4,400 during this latest conflict [2B].  But civil war has been ongoing in Sudan (in three stages) since 1955, and rape has been employed from the outset [3].

“…systemic rape in homes, detention facilities, public checkpoints, and interrogation centres…committed mainly by members of the police force, intelligence officers, interrogators and prison guards…[including] forced nudity, [punitive] virginity test, and sexual torture [4A].”

This tactic is not new.  We have seen it used in Iraq; Rwanda; Syria, Egypt, Libya, and elsewhere in the Middle East during the Arab Spring; in India; and most recently against Israel [4B][5][6][7A][8][9].  In Rwanda, between 100,000 and 250,000 women were raped during the three months of genocide. Continue reading →

18 Comments

Filed under Abuse of Power, Christianity, domestic abuse, domestic violence, Justice, Law, Rape, Religion, Sexual Assault, Violence Against Women

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

May 19, 2024 · 1:00 am

Celebrity Predation

File:Spacey Star.jpg

Kevin Spacey’s star on Hollywood Walk of Fame, Author Mike Crawley of Southampton, UK (CC Attribution 2.0 Generic)

Actor Kevin Spacey — the star of such acclaimed films as LA Confidential, The Usual Suspects, Glengary Glenn Ross, Seven, and Pay It Forward — is not the first celebrity to be accused of sexual assault.

Combs Lawsuits

Five separate lawsuits covering a period of 30 years have been brought by male and female victims (some of them teens) against the rapper and record producer, Sean “Diddy” Combs, for alleged sexual assault, rape, and sex trafficking [1].

Like Spacey, Combs denies the allegations against him.  However, a disturbing 2016 video on YouTube shows him physically assaulting the R&B singer, Cassie Ventura, whose case was settled in 2023 [2].

Spacey Acquittals

Spacey, it should be noted, was the same year acquitted in Britain of sexual assault relative to his interaction with four different men between 2001 and 2013 [3].  A New York jury earlier acquitted Spacey of molesting then 14 y.o. Anthony Rapp in 1986 [4].

More Spacey Accusers

“I take full responsibility for my past behavior and my actions, but I cannot and will not take responsibility or apologize to anyone who’s made up stuff about me or exaggerated stories about me…I never told someone that if they give me sexual favors, then I will help them out with their career, never.”

–Kevin Spacey [5]

A 2-part documentary on YouTube now features ten more men who claim to have been sexually assaulted by Spacey between 1976 and 2013 [6][7].  The stories by these men are nauseatingly familiar, reflecting an abuse of power as much as sexual predation.  Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under Abuse of Power, bullying, Child Abuse, Child Molestation, domestic abuse, domestic violence, Justice, Law, Rape, sex trafficking, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Assault, Violence Against Women

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

April 14, 2024 · 1:00 am

Kidnapped Ukrainian Children

File:Victims of War in Ukraine - Kyiv Hospital - Exhibition by Still Miracle Photography 03.jpg

Ukrainian child’s drawing of a tank from “Faces of War:  The Human Factor” (2015 London photography exhibit), Author Still Miracle Photography (CC BY-SA 4.0 International)

The war in Ukraine is disproportionately impacting Ukraine’s children.  At least 30,000 have been kidnapped and deported to Russia [1][2].  Fears are that the number is far higher.  Russia is refusing to disclose information about these children.

This mass deportation is being called cultural genocide, a deliberate effort to destroy the Ukrainian people [3].

Russia’s goal is to brainwash and weaponize these children, who are apparently assembled in camps before deportation and pressured to submit [4].

Children are told by Russian teachers and psychologists that their families will not come for them.  They are threatened that their medication will be withheld, if they do not obey.  Some have even been placed for weeks in solitary confinement.

The children’s identities are erased, and false papers issued.  Russian adoptions are then arranged. Continue reading →

14 Comments

Filed under Abuse of Power, Child Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Justice, Law, Neglect, Physical Abuse

Tagged as , , , , , ,

April 7, 2024 · 1:00 am

Male Sexual Victimization at Madigan Army Medical Center

File:MAMC in the fall.jpg

Madigan Army Medical Center (2007), Author Public Affairs Office Madigan Army Medical Center (PD as work product of federal govt.)

Madigan Army Medical Center at  Joint-Base Lewis McChord in Washington State has been the site of more than one scandal.

In 2012 the hospital was accused of reversing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) diagnoses, in order to cut costs [1].  A nationwide inquiry was prompted [2].  In 2015, an operating room fire severely disfigured a toddler undergoing routine surgery [3].  A $12.3 million verdict resulted.

Now Major Michael Stockin, a 37 y.o. pain management anesthesiologist at Madigan, is charged with having sexually abused 42 male patients including combat veterans [4][6]. Continue reading →

10 Comments

Filed under Abuse of Power, Justice, Law, Sexual Abuse

Tagged as , , , , , ,