Elon Musk pledges to protect children from sexual exploitation on Twitter

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Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk responded to a challenge by French President Emmanuel Macron who asked him directly if he would commit to protecting children on the internet from sexual predators, giving him a positive response.

“We need to better protect our children on social networks and the Internet. To protect our children on the Internet, we need to better verify user age, better detect and stop sexual predators, and better identify and address bullying,” wrote Macron. “We need to be more efficient in taking down content.”

Macron announced that he and his partners were launching a Children Online Protection Lab, with countries including France, Estonia, and New Zealand onboard with the project. The project has also gained the pledges of Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet, Snap and TikTok.

“Will the bird protect our children?” Macron asked in a thread about social media platforms and companies that have signed onboard to better protect children from groomers and sexual predators.

“Absolument,” replied Musk. Responding to the Rebel’s Ian Miles Cheong, Musk stated that he intended to “take action” to strengthen the company’s stance against child sexual exploitation.

We will take action in this regard

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 11, 2022

Although Musk’s remarks were largely well-received, he also got some pushback from a number of left-wing activists who called his pronouncement an amplification of “far right, harmful voices.”

“Come on, man. Show at least a modicum of responsibility,” wrote Alastair McAlpine, a pediatric doctor who took issue with Musk’s pledge to take action against child sexual predators.

Again, why are you amplifying far right, harmful voices, Elon?

Come on, man. Show at least a modicum of responsibility.

— Alastair McAlpine, MD (@AlastairMcA30) November 11, 2022