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Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) is pressing the messaging platform Kik over its dangers to users, accusing the platform of “turning a blind eye” or “allowing” the exploitation and abuse of minors.
The letter, sent Friday and first shared with The Hill, comes a week after the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) released a new report finding the Kik app is a “predator’s paradise” and has not done enough to keep users younger than 18 years off the platform.
“The results of this investigation, while disturbing, are not shocking. Kik’s policies are designed to allow this kind of predatory behavior,” Blackburn wrote in the letter to Michael Heyward, the CEO and co-founder of MediaLab, the parent company of Kik.
According to the NCOSE report, within 12 seconds of making an account posing as a 12-year-old, they were “inundated” with sexually abusive messages from strangers.
It is not the first time the app has been scrutinized for child sexual exploitation, appearing on NCOSE’s “Dirty Dozen List” in recent years.
While Kik states it made safety changes and does not allow users younger than 18 on the platform, the center said the platform does not have age verification and allows users to message with strangers. The research group further said the platform’s sexual content filters do not work.
“Kik purports to be an 18+ platform, meaning it feels no need to implement parental controls — and it lacks age verification,” Blackburn said in the letter, adding, “Children are being abused on your platform and it appears you are doing little to stop it.”
The Hill reached out to MediaLab for comment.
The Tennessee Republican gave MediaLab a week to respond to a series of questions about its age verification process, safeguards and risk assessments on stranger conversations, and the alleged failure of its explicit-content filters.
She also asked how many reports Kik received in the past five years about adults initiating sexual conversations with suspected minors, and how many reports Kik sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline over the past five years.
Blackburn, who is also running for governor in the Volunteer State, is one of the Senate’s loudest voices on kids safety, having led the social media accountability bill, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), alongside Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). While it overwhelmingly passed in the Senate in 2024, disagreements in the House prevented it from moving forward.
A spokesperson for Blackburn told The Hill earlier this week that the senator is “spearheading” negotiations with the White House to finalize text for a package to federally preempt some state regulations of artificial intelligence, in exchange for kids safety bills — including the KOSA — and the No Fakes Act to protect artists from AI impersonation.
It would also include age verification requirements, a hotly contested issue among lawmakers and the technology industry.
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kid safety online
Kik
Marsha Blackburn
MediaLab
Michael Heyward
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
National Center on Sexual Exploitation
Richard Blumenthal
Senate GOP
sexting
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