It’s Pride Month. An opportunity for some good, old-fashioned, corporate virtue signaling.
Big businesses are releasing LGBTQ-positive branding in the hopes of profiting off it.
The photo sharing social media app Snapchat joined the club by releasing its own photo filter for Pride Month.
Snapchat’s new filter had an option that claimed “Love Has No Age.”
The interactive filter bore the words "Love Has No _____" – allowing users to swipe to fill in the blank. Some of the options included sexuality, religion, disability, and… age.
That’s right. Snapchat’s new filter had an option that claimed “Love Has No Age.”
While easy to brush this off as an oversight, Snapchat’s filter a reminder of a salient issue: the normalization of the sexualization of children.
With a TedX speaker calling pedophilia "an unchangeable sexual orientation,” and the left-leaning publication Slate asking whether pedophilia is "a crime or an illness," pedophilia is becoming normalized more and more by the day.
Newsflash: pedophilia is a crime, and love does, in fact, have an age.
The 1.1 billion dollar company's decision to include said filter validates brazen attempts by pedophiles to become a part of the LGBTQ community.
Such tactics have been going on for over 40 years, with the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) in the United Kingdom, and the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) in the United States.
Believing that "love has no age" is nothing to be proud of, let alone plaster on social media. It’s something to go to jail for.
Most sane people rejoice when pedophiles are sent to prison. Even thieves have more of a moral compass than Snapchat: they recognize that love does have an age.
This isn't the first time Snapchat has been in hot water for catering to pedophiles, either.
This isn't the first time Snapchat has been in hot water for catering to pedophiles, either.
When it was first created, the 3000-employee app gained popularity by being an avenue for children and teens to send explicit photos back and forth. The company did nothing about it despite the countless complaints from concerned parents.
A study from the Crimes Against Children Research Center of the University of New Hampshire found that in 41 per cent of sextortation cases, the victims were contacted through apps like Snapchat or Kik.
Fortune reported Snapchat’s disappearing photo feature is “making it tougher to catch predators.” Despite all the ways that predators have utilized their platform, Snapchat has taken no action.
[caption id="attachment_177937" align="aligncenter" width="1920"]
Snapchat on iPhone App Store (Creative Commons)[/caption]
Even more disturbing is that this seems to coincide with the trend in "age gap love." A movement for adults in relationships with significant age gaps to be accepted and viewed as normal.
The origin stories of many of these relationships begin at often inappropriate and illegal times.
Looking into it, I found myself deep into an actual reality TV series called 'Age Gap Love'.
While many episodes seem fine because each couple consists of consenting adults, trend of middle-aged men who met their significant others at very young ages – usually by being a friend of the child’s family – is deeply concerning. The origin stories of many of these relationships begin at often inappropriate and illegal times.
Following an episode in which a 44-year-old man is dating a 16-year-old girl, the show has been blasted in the UK papers for "normalizing grooming."
Despite the backlash, the series continues to grow in popularity, and the concept continues to gain support.
Snapchat needs to openly state that love does in fact have an age.
Many have claimed that Snapchat intended to reference consenting adults in age gap relationships in its filter. Regardless, it has other more illicit implications and should have never been created.
After outrage over the concerning filter, Snapchat quietly removed it without comment nor apology. As a result of its removal, Snapchat no longer has an interactive filter to celebrate Pride Month.
Snapchat owes the public an explanation as to why they thought it was okay to make a filter that says, "Love Has No Age," and how they let it happen. Snapchat needs to openly state that love does in fact have an age.
We’re waiting.
Ashley St. Clair is a conservative activist
