The video highlights the disturbing case of Alexander McCartney, a prolific online child abuser sentenced to life in prison in Northern Ireland. He was accused of using social media platforms, particularly Snapchat, to manipulate and blackmail thousands of young girls worldwide, with 185 charges and 70 known victims aged 10-16, identified in New Zealand and the US. These heinous acts led directly to tragic outcomes, including the suicide of a young victim, Cimaran Thomas.
The discussion extends to the role of social media in enabling such crimes. Snapchat, among others, has been criticized for the ease with which predators can exploit their systems. However, it is mentioned that following this case and rising concerns, companies have implemented new features to enhance safety, especially for teenagers, and governments are working on legislation like the UK's upcoming Online Safety Act to enforce stricter measures on platforms to prevent illegal content and exploitation.
Main takeaways from the video:
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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:
1. prolific [prəˈlɪfɪk] - (adjective) - Producing a large amount of something. - Synonyms: (productive, fruitful, abundant)
One of the most prolific online child abusers has been sentenced to life in prison.
2. blackmail [ˈblækˌmeɪl] - (verb) - To demand payment or another benefit from someone in return for not revealing compromising or damaging information about them. - Synonyms: (extort, threaten, pressure)
Alexander McCartney from County Amar in Northern Ireland, faked his identity to sexually abuse and blackmail thousands of children online
3. catastrophic [ˌkætəˈstrɒfɪk] - (adjective) - Involving or causing sudden great damage or suffering. - Synonyms: (disastrous, calamitous, ruinous)
Well, the judge at Belfast Crown Court said McCartney used social media on an industrial scale to inflict terrible and catastrophic damage on young girls across the world
4. industrial scale [ɪnˈdʌstriəl skeɪl] - (phrase) - On a very large or intensive scale. - Synonyms: (massive, extensive, large-scale)
The judge at Belfast Crown Court said McCartney used social media on an industrial scale to inflict terrible and catastrophic damage on young girls across the world.
5. manslaughter [ˈmænˌslɔːtər] - (noun) - The crime of killing a person by accident or without planning to do so. - Synonyms: (homicide, killing, slaying)
Police and prosecutors on both sides of the Atlantic worked to bring the manslaughter charge.
6. depraved [dɪˈpreɪvd] - (adjective) - Morally corrupt; wicked. - Synonyms: (corrupt, debased, perverted)
You had little girls, sort of an average age of 10 to 12 years old, many times being threatened in the most depraved way.
7. culpability [ˌkʌlpəˈbɪlɪti] - (noun) - Responsibility for a fault or wrong; blame. - Synonyms: (guilt, blame, liability)
That in this case, with the death of Simran Thomas, there is a direct link between what was taking place online and then the culpability for the events that led to the loss of her life.
8. sexploitation [ˌsɛkˌsplɔɪˈteɪʃən] - (noun) - The exploitation of women or children for the purposes of sexual gratification. - Synonyms: (abuse, exploitation, violation)
The second thing that Instagram released, it was just last week, was a feature to try and tackle sexploitation.
9. fatalistic [ˌfeɪtəˈlɪstɪk] - (adjective) - Relating to or characteristic of the belief that all events are predetermined and therefore inevitable. - Synonyms: (deterministic, resigned, gloomy)
We shouldn't be fatalistic about this.
10. piecemal [ˈpiːsˌmiːl] - (adjective) - Characterized by unsystematic partial measures taken over a period of time. - Synonyms: (fragmentary, sporadic, intermittent)
Most of the major platforms, at best, what we see from them is piecemeal action in response to tragedies.
Abuser in one of world’s biggest ever online child abuse cases jailed for life - BBC News
One of the most prolific online child abusers has been sentenced to life in prison. Alexander McCartney from County Amar in Northern Ireland, faked his identity to sexually abuse and blackmail thousands of children online. Well, the judge at Belfast Crown Court said McCartney used social media on an industrial scale to inflict terrible and catastrophic damage on young girls across the world. Police believe thousands of children were targeted, with many victims never identified.
Before sentencing. Today, McCartney, who is 26, pleaded guilty to 185 charges. Those charges involved 70 victims aged between 10 and 16 in New Zealand and in the United States. My colleague Chris Page has the details.
Cimaran Thomas lived thousands of miles away from the abuser who caused her death. Why? Why was the biggest question. Why? This is the Sunday we took her home before her passing. She has bright red lipstick on. Getting into that stage of her life to be a teenager, she almost was.
Alexander McCartney was blackmailing Cimarron. He had initially pretended to be a teenage girl to trick Cimarron into sending him explicit pictures of herself. He went through the same sickening routine with three and a half thousand victims, telling them he would post the photos publicly unless they carried out acts of abuse for his sexual gratification.
Three minutes after McCartney's last message to Cimarron, the emergency services received this call. What happened? She fell. Shot herself? Yeah. Get her to get rags. Put pressure on that, control the bleeding as much as you can. I need to secure the firearm. Is it close by? Eighteen months later, Cimmerin's father, Ben, took his own life without knowing what had led to his daughter's suicide.
Police and prosecutors on both sides of the Atlantic worked to bring the manslaughter charge. McCartney targeted victims across the world over five years. He ordered some girls to film themselves abusing other children. You had little girls, sort of an average age of 10 to 12 years old, many times being threatened in the most depraved way.
When he got that first photograph from them, he actually had a pre prepared threat saved in his phone which he would cut and paste into the chat. His offending was round the clock, you know, and it was difficult to know when he actually did anything else.
A number of victims were in New Zealand. One father said his family had been devastated. It all happened for my daughter within minutes, you know, as soon as that first photo was sent, a sequence of events was in motion that, you know, could never be undone. And he'd obviously honed his craft over, you know, a significant period of time. And as soon as he had that power, she was playing by his rules.
McCartney is now facing justice with a life prison sentence. The judge said the full extent of McCartney's crimes put the case on a par with murder. He told the court he couldn't imagine a more dangerous sex offender. The detective leading the inquiry said there'd never been an investigation like it.
His offending was on an industrial scale. McCartney's actions have directly caused the death of a child. He may as well have pulled the trigger himself. McCartney must serve at least 20 years before he can apply for early release. The online killer is one of the most prolific child abusers ever to be convicted.
Chris Page, BBC News, Belfast. Well, let's cross live now and speak to our tech correspondent, Graham Fraser. And, Graham, just bring us up to date with what Snapchat has had to say following this case.
Well, as we were hearing from Chris report there, McCartney's horrible crimes had social media at their heart. In particular, Snapchat, an app, which will be popular for many people watching at home, and it's also a very popular app for many young people. Now, what McCartney was doing was he was pretending to be a girl on Snapchat and he was finding girls and he was flattering them and he was getting compromising photographs of them and then he used them to blackmail and threaten the children, with the offences taking place between 2013 and 2019.
Now, as you say, Snapchat have released a statement following the sentencing today. It says the sexual exploitation of any person is horrific and illegal and our hearts go out to the victims in this case. If we discover this activity or it is reported to us, we remove it, lock the violating account and report it to the authorities. We have extra protections for teens to make it difficult for them to be contacted by strangers.
And we have expanded in app notifications to ensure teens are in touch with people they trust. The statement concluded, through our in app family centre, parents can also see who their teens are talking to and who their friends are.
Give us a little bit more detail, Graeme, if you can, about what social media companies are actually doing to protect young people in these circumstances. Now, what have they been saying?
I think when we talk about online safety today, it's good to focus on two areas. First, what the companies themselves are doing, and second, the legislation that governments and other authorities are bringing in to tackle some of the issues that we've been talking about today.
So if we talk about the social media companies first, I'm sure if they were here with us right now, they would tell us about all the features that exist already on their apps, on their platforms to keep Children safe. In the last few months, there has been a few more added to certain platforms. For instance, one of the major ones was Instagram.
They introduced something called Teen accounts. This particularly affected people aged between 13 and 15 and made the accounts private by default. And that means that people who don't follow them wouldn't be able to see their content. It also gave parents quite a lot of ability to control those apps.
The second thing that Instagram released, it was just last week, was a feature to try and tackle sexploitation. In particular, it was stopping people being able to screenshot images in the app that were only designed to be seen once. So that's a flavor of some of the things that some of the social media companies are doing.
But one of the big things I think is the Online Safety act, which in the UK is coming in next year. This will put the onus on the platforms to do much more to tackle illegal content. Graham, thank you very much indeed.
Well, let's now speak to Andy Burrows, who's chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation. It's a charity set up following the death of the schoolgirl Molly Russell, who took her own life after viewing harmful content online. And, Andy, I'm very grateful to you for taking the time to speak to us and if I may ask you, first of all, for your reaction to the sentencing and indeed to this case.
Evening, Marianne. Well, this is a really appalling case and whilst it's not surprising, it is nonetheless deeply shocking to see just the sheer scale of this man's grooming of children right around the world.
I think the sentencing today is really important not only because a life sentence has been rightly imposed, but because of the. Of the manslaughter conviction that was brought about in this case. And I think that's really important because that should send a very clear message to child sexual abusers and to those who wish to harm children across a whole range of ways online.
That in this case, with the death of Simran Thomas, there is a direct link between what was taking place online and then the culpability for the events that led to the loss of her life.
Talk me through a little bit about what needs to be done now, do you think, to prevent cases like this being able to run and run in the way this has for years? Well, Graham was setting out there some of what the social media platforms claim that they're doing, but the reality is that most of the major platforms, at best, what we see from them is piecemeal action in response to tragedies.
Most of the companies have failed to invest in safety upfront by design. They've turned a blind eye to the range of safety risks and as a result, we see child sexual abuse every year hit new record levels. Here in the UK, we see a child age 10 to 19 die by suicide every single week.
Where there is a technology aspect to those cases, there is so much more that technology platforms could do to detect and disrupt harm before it even happens. Because we're talking here, Mariam, about preventable harm, we shouldn't be fatalistic about this. The platforms can do so much more to step in and intervene.
Andy, good to talk to you. Thanks again.
CHILD ABUSE, SOCIAL MEDIA, ONLINE SAFETY, GLOBAL, INSPIRATION, TECHNOLOGY, BBC NEWS