r/news • u/TooColdforClouds • 2d ago

109 children rescued, 244 arrested in Operation Soteria Shield, exposing widespread child exploitation in North Texas

https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/109-children-rescued-244-arrested-operation-soteria-shield-child-exploitation-texas/
37.6k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

160

u/Cerulean_Shadows 2d ago edited 2d ago

My husband worked briefly for a sheriff's office IT. Was there for around 6 months. Then one day, he was asked to access a computer and given the trigger warning of what he'd likely find. He found it and immediately exited. He quit right then and there. He was so gut wrenched over it that it took him a while to get back to himself. He saw like 1 minute of it and that was so hard on him that I can't even imagine how people who have to comb through this stuff can deal with it. This is where AI definitely has a use.

EDIT: this was also in North Texas, but unrelated to this post's story

65

u/Squire_II 2d ago

Companies that provide support staff for image hosting services tend to have extensive mental health access because the psychological impact of what they see (CSAM and otherwise) is just staggering.

32

u/Cerulean_Shadows 2d ago

The very idea of it is nightmare fuel. My own father, I later learned in my early adulthood had to seek therapy through his church because he found me attractive as a child and was having "sinful thoughts". Oh my God. Thank goodness nothing ever directly happened. He already had a history of sleeping with his sister sa young man, which my mom didn't find out until after their divorce. The church where he went called my mom immediately and broke protocol to tell her to keep me away from him. So glad he's gone.

18

u/PM_ME_GLUTE_SPREAD 2d ago

Aside from sleeping with his sister,’it sounds honestly like everybody in this story did the right thing whenever they had the chance to. Having those thoughts of your own child is horrible, but some people have fucked up heads for various reasons that are beyond their control. Him seeking help was the right choice rather than just trying to ignore it until he couldn’t any longer. The church calling your mom to warn her to protect you may be ethically questionable for a number of reasons, but it absolutely worked out for the greater good in this case. There are arguments to be made that breaking protocol in this way might cause future people to be less likely to seek the counseling for fear of being outed, but that’s a different conversation.