Facebook Won’t Remove "12-Year-Old Slut" Page

Last month, two 19-year-olds created a Facebook page devoted to mocking “12-year-old sluts.” It’s sparked multiple protests, but Facebook says they won’t take it down.

An image posted to “12 year old slut meme’s.”

Via: facebook.com

“12 year old slut meme’s” [sic] launched as a Facebook page on August 26. Its stated purpose is “embarrassing those who embarrass themselves,” and it consists of photos of young girls in sexualized poses or screenshots of sexual conversations, apparently taken from the girls’ Facebook pages (along with more traditional meme-style images like the one above). Liberally interspersed are mission statements like this one: “If you post slutty fucking shit on facebook expect your photo to end up on here, then tagged in, then ripped to shreds by 120 thousand people. Chaos will continue. Go die.” At last count, the page had nearly 213,000 likes.

A Change.org petition launched a few days ago charges that “12 year old slut meme’s” violates Facebook’s anti-hate speech guidelines, and urges the company to remove the page. So far, Facebook has resisted doing so. A spokesperson told BuzzFeed Shift, “We recognize the concern that this offensive Page has caused, and while we find this Page distasteful, it does not currently violate our terms.” She added that the page “does not pose a material threat to anyone’s safety.”

Facebook’s guidelines prohibit “content that attacks people based on their actual or perceived race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or disease is not allowed” — however, the site notes that it allows “clear attempts at humor or satire that might otherwise be considered a possible threat or attack. This includes content that many people may find to be in bad taste.”

The social network drew criticism last year for being slow to remove pages full of jokes about rape or physical abuse. It also left some up, adding that pages would be allowed to stay if they were clearly labelled as humor — several still remain. “12 year old slut meme’s” is helpfully tagged “controversial humor.”

Tumblr appears to have taken a harder line on the issue — a Tumblr blog also devoted to 12-year-old slut memes has been removed. Tumblr hasn’t responded to our request for comment on this decision, but their content guidelines specifically prohibit content that might cause “harm to minors,” including “anything relating to minors that is sexually suggestive.”

“12 year old slut meme’s” lists two 19-year-old Australian men, James Silverwood and Dom Terry, as administrators. Today, the two posted a note about their future plans: “Due to the amount of legal strife that we have been running into about the group, and the fact that we are just two 19 year old guys that obviously can’t afford a law suit to their name, we have regrettably decided to close the page, permanently. […] Nahhhhhh, just gammin’. As long as there are sluts, we will put them in their place. Keep the submissions coming guys. We’re not going anywhere.”