As online sexual exploitation grows, laws need to catch up – The Boston Globe

You’d think a predator in our own backyard — no matter how far-flung his victims — would be a wake-up call to lawmakers to tackle the growing problem of online sexual exploitation of children. Well, think again.

Sure, Gavin’s wide-ranging national and international exploits made him a natural for federal prosecution. But the mere fact that the Massachusetts State Police received 23,000 reports about child exploitation in 2025 via the CyberTipline — a 77 percent increase over the previous year — would surely indicate the problem is growing right under our noses.

And yet Massachusetts remains an outlier among other states in adapting its own laws to deal with the sexual exploitation and abuse of children generally and its newest manifestation — the proliferation of internet exploitation whether on the so-called dark web or social media outlets.

Massachusetts, for example, remains one of only five states in the nation that has failed to criminalize AI-generated or computer-edited materials involving the sexual exploitation of children.

According to the advocacy group EnoughAbuse.org, half of those laws approved in other states were passed during the 2024-25 legislative cycle. Massachusetts did pass a bill in 2024 to criminalize “deep-fake nudes,” the group noted on its website, but it was not specifically to protect children, nor has anyone been prosecuted under it, according to the website.

And while lawmakers on Beacon Hill have advanced — although not yet passed — legislation to prohibit the use of AI-generated “deep fakes” in election ads and materials, they have not made a similar effort to confront their use to exploit children, whose only “crime” might have been to post a photo on the web that could then be manipulated or “nudified” via AI.

Assistant US Attorney Luke Goldworm, the prosecutor in the Gavin case, told the Globe the exploitation is very real.

“They’re not dots and pixels, ones and zeros,” Goldworm said. “They’re someone’s daughter, granddaughter, sister, niece, and friend. And these crimes steal their innocence. It robs them of the safety all children should feel in their own home.”

The most obvious way to close that gaping loophole in Massachusetts law, advocates say, would be to update the state’s child pornography law.

Today predators are using every available avenue to reach children — including those ubiquitous game boxes. One of Gavin’s victims — the one whose father helped investigators make the case against the Brookline teacher — was a 12-year-old Tennessee girl Gavin managed to find via her Microsoft Xbox.

Meanwhile, states continue to play whack-a-mole with social media companies like Meta and tech giants like Apple, demanding more safety controls to protect children. Apple is now also facing a suit by West Virginia’s attorney general for allegedly knowingly allowing its iCloud storage platform to host illicit images of children. The suit charges that “Rather than implement industry-standard detection tools used by its peers, Apple repeatedly shirked their responsibility to protect children under the guise of user privacy.”

Meanwhile, as predators get ever more savvy about using technology to exploit and victimize children, Massachusetts remains behind the curve even on the simple stuff.

Legislation aimed at mandating education about child sexual abuse prevention for students and school personnel continues to languish. So too enhanced screening for those seeking to work in school systems. And while there’s no evidence that Gavin exploited those in his immediate orbit or that any of his employers knew of his illegal activities, there’s also no reason for Massachusetts not to approve legislation to prevent “passing the trash,” as it’s known — where one school system knowingly passes along those employees guilty of sexual misconduct to another school system.

All of those concepts are included in an omnibus bill, which also would close the age-of-consent loophole that has allowed the sexual exploitation of 16- to 18-year-olds by adults in positions of authority, like teachers, coaches, or counselors. The latter concept has been approved by 39 other states.

But that legislation has been languishing in the House Ways and Means Committee since September.

Sure, tech companies need to do more to protect children. Parents, often bewildered by the technology that seems to be second nature to their children, need to be more vigilant. But there is simply no excuse for Massachusetts lawmakers to ignore legislation that would educate children about the dangers of online sexual abuse and criminalize the conduct of predators in their midst and those who would enable them.

Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us @GlobeOpinion.