It happened just hours after the 17-year-old was a victim of “financial sextortion,” targeted by two brothers from Nigeria who posed as a young woman online.
Buta joins an unfortunately long list of parents who lost their children to sextortion and cyberbullying online.
And Congress, where bipartisanship is increasingly rare, unanimously passed legislation to help keep that list from growing.
President Joe Biden will soon sign that bill into law, which will modernize and streamline how child sexual abuse material is stored and reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), adding new reporting requirements and increasing fines for failures to report.
Once the REPORT Act is signed into law, which is expected within the next week, online platforms and social media companies will be required to report child sex trafficking and online enticement to NCMEC’s tip line.
“It also provides law enforcement with crucial additional time to investigate, serve search warrants on companies for additional information as needed, and more.”.
“There’s no worse nightmare for any parent than for a young child to be preyed upon or, God forbid, trafficked or enticed by online predators.”. »
