House Bill 47 and Senate Bill 73 for Opposing the Blackmailing of Our Children
Please call and email your state legislator to support and vote yes on House Bill 47 and Senate Bill 73.
Dr. Simon wants our state to do what it can to keep children safe online while still preserving our liberty and our ability to contact our own people online. House Bill 47 and Senate Bill 73 aim to address one of the problems confronting us on child and teen safety online. That problem, which has faced the USA and Canada in recent years, has been sexual extortion against children.
So then, what do the two bills do?
- House Bill 47 opposes the sexting sexual extortion of children and establishes a notification in schools of a description of sexual extortion, contact info for local law enforcement, and contact info for the suicide prevention hotline
- Senate Bill 73 opposes the sexting sexual extortion of children (like House Bill 47), but with local school districts notifying students grade four and up and their parents about sexual extortion issues
Now, sexting is the practice of sending nude photos or videos of yourself or your genitalia to others online (including over the phone). Over the last several years, people have taken advantage of children and young teens in various parts of the country and have blackmailed them after those children sent nude imagery to them online. Someone can impersonate being a young person of about the same age, in the process of eliciting that nude material.
This issue of blackmail from sexting has gotten so bad that some young people online even a couple of years ago wised up to it and put, “don’t send” on their social media, dating, and friend-group profiles. “Don’t send” is short for, “I don’t send nude pictures of myself to you.”
House Bill 47 and Senate Bill 73 are pieces of legislation aimed at addressing the blackmailing issue so that sexual extortion of children happens less often and that if it does happen, it gets reported quickly to law enforcement.
The phone number to call your state legislator about this bill is the legislative message line, 1-800-372-7181.
Thanks for your help in keeping our kids and teens safe,
--Dr. Frank Simon, M.D., and his staff
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References (caution: profanity is in some of the videos mentioned below):
Asher. "Dangerous Child Dating Apps." The Asher Show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncaetCe11pE. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025. Web.
Tricaso, Allie. “The Horrors of Child Dating Apps.” 15 Nov. 2023. https://youtu.be/4O823mM0SNw?si=J4VYY-UuGJPo0eJW&t=249. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025. Web.
Hughes, Rob. “Law Enforcement 'Overwhelmed' by Scope of Online Child Exploitation, Sheriff Dart Says.” ABC Chicago. 12 Aug. 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZXNu_chAbU. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025. Web.