Blackburn presses Kik on kids safety after ‘disturbing’ research report

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........

© The Hill