Utah Passes Social Media Law Stating That Teens May Only Be Groomed In Person By Religious Leaders

SALT LAKE CITY—In an attempt to crack down on predators who seek to manipulate children they meet on social media platforms, the Republican supermajority in Utah’s state legislature passed a law Friday stating that teens could only be groomed in person by religious leaders. “I intend to sign this bill so we can curb the online abuse of juveniles and make sure our kids will only be preyed on by adults they know and trust,” said Gov. Spencer Cox, who stressed that the sexual exploitation of teenagers was a very serious matter in Utah and should be carried out exclusively by elders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “We believe that intrusive questions about a teen’s sexuality should be asked behind closed doors by a bishop—not on some social media site by a stranger. And when that child is eventually blackmailed into sexual slavery, who better to oversee that process than a man who is highly respected in the community and represents an institution that is beyond reproach?” Cox added that the digital trail of evidence left behind by online predators also made it that much harder to orchestrate a cover-up of the abuse and pretend it never happened.