That's deeply upsetting. For those readers who haven't read the article but were considering it, I suggest you skip it if you've been the victim of sexual abuse.
I wish I could say something constructive, something about a panacea or partial solution to what this woman experiences while posing as a child. I know that VPNs, Tor, Proxies and the like will hide the determined, but I wish that something could be done about this.
Oh, and for those of you who may feel the need to say "don't let kids on the internet". That's almost impossible to enforce. Kids visit other kids houses, sleepovers, libraries, schools, etc etc. They get exposed to this stuff and it's horrible.
Pioneers in the wilderness told their kids about mountain lions, bears, and wolves. We have to tell our kids about this. We can't helicopter them 24/7, especially as they approach their teens.
I think this is qualitatively different than environmental hazards. This is other people, maliciously intruding into kids lives and attacking them. It's less like wolves than it is like an enemy tribe, nation, or army intent on attacking defenseless people.
You are right that it is qualitatively different, and I think this makes it more relevant.
The biggest predator of humans is humans. If we wander around being naive about this fact and acting like it is an outlier, or an exception, we can't deal with it realistically ... we fail to take precautions and then emotionally overreact when we are wronged.
I wish I could say something constructive, something about a panacea or partial solution to what this woman experiences while posing as a child. I know that VPNs, Tor, Proxies and the like will hide the determined, but I wish that something could be done about this.
Oh, and for those of you who may feel the need to say "don't let kids on the internet". That's almost impossible to enforce. Kids visit other kids houses, sleepovers, libraries, schools, etc etc. They get exposed to this stuff and it's horrible.