Michael Dougherty
Colorado has an opportunity to protect kids and improve public safety by limiting the exchange of firearms, drugs and child sexually exploitative material on social media.
Times have changed. Years ago, drugs were dealt on street corners. Guns were sold in parking lots and on back roads under the cover of darkness. And, if a stranger sought to sexually assault someone else’s child, it would require a brazen kidnapping.
As a prosecutor with decades of experience fighting for justice and victims, I have seen this dynamic change over time. Today, these crimes are happening out in the open on social media, and children are being targeted with alarming frequency. As technology changes, our laws must change to keep up.
The good news is an overwhelming, bipartisan majority of state legislators passed a bill to tackle this crisis head on. It has the support of the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, Children’s Hospital, school districts, local children’s advocacy organizations and all 23 of Colorado’s elected District Attorneys — including myself. The fact that this bill has such strong, bipartisan support speaks to the need for it and the dangers kids face online.
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Social media is often referred to as today’s town square. That is accurate, in many respects. However, social media companies are controlling access to, and content on, the town square — and making billions of dollars in profit from doing so. With that control comes the responsibility of protecting kids from gun sales, drug distribution and human trafficking.
If signed into law, Senate Bill 86 would require social media platforms to ban users found to be engaging in narrowly defined criminal activity: illegal drug sales to kids, firearm sales to kids that violate state or federal law, child sex trafficking and sexual exploitation. This commonsense measure would begin saving lives immediately. One recent example from my work as district attorney clearly demonstrates how.
Following an intensive investigation by the Longmont Police Department, Boulder County Sheriff’s Office and my office, a man was arrested for providing drugs and vapes to middle and high school-aged students in exchange for money and sexual acts. Specifically, this individual would sell drugs, namely psilocybin mushrooms, MDMA, marijuana and vapes, to kids throughout Boulder County and the surrounding areas. All of this occurred via social media. The defendant then coerced underage girls to perform sexual acts in exchange for drugs and vapes.
In March, the defendant pled guilty, and the court sentenced him to a total of 97 years in the Department of Corrections, an appropriate sentence for a man who preyed upon middle-school-aged and high-school-aged students. This sentence was made possible by the victims’ courage as well as the outstanding team response in this extensive investigation and prosecution.
These cases are happening throughout Colorado. Senate Bill 86 would aid in the prevention of these offenses. If Senate Bill 86 had been law, his accounts could have been flagged, investigated and removed from social media much more quickly — cutting off his easy access to additional victims.
In addition, the bill mandates social media companies respond to search warrants from Colorado law enforcement in a more timely manner. You might think this is already the norm, but it’s not. These are time-sensitive investigations, and each passing day is a social media encounter with another potential victim.
The opponents to this bill claim the sale of drugs and guns to kids is protected by the First Amendment and/or Second Amendment. Neither one of these claims is accurate. Adults would not be permitted to sell guns and drugs to kids in a deli, even though it is a private business. The same is true of social media. Being a private company does not absolve social media platforms from the responsibility we all share to uphold the law. It’s not acceptable for businesses to allow dealers to sell illegal drugs on their property. Newspapers are not permitted to run ads letting adults solicit children for sex, under the theory it is free speech. It’s not acceptable for any kind of business to facilitate illegal gun sales to children.
The regulations required by this bill will simply end a horrifying status quo that allows drug dealers, illegal gun dealers and child predators to operate openly and with impunity on platforms that make billions of dollars from the time and attention of our kids.
I strongly urge Gov. Polis to sign Senate Bill 86 into law. The lives of Colorado kids and the safety of our communities are at risk.
Michael Dougherty serves as district attorney of the 20th Judicial District (Boulder County) and is a current candidate for Attorney General of Colorado.
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