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Voices for Voices®
Voices for Voices® is the #1 ranked podcast where people turn to for expert mental health, recovery and career advancement intelligence.
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My Story - Elliston's Experience of Deepfake Revenge Porn & TAKE IT DOWN Act (Part 1) | Episode 138
My Story - Elliston's Experience of Deepfake Revenge Porn & TAKE IT DOWN Act (Part 1) | Episode 138
Chapter Markers
0:01 Social Media's Impact on Mental Health
9:26 Elliston's Experience With Social Media Incident
15:27 Online Predator Within School Community
20:28 Impact of AI on Online Safety
Ever wondered how the virtual world can turn a teenager's life upside down? On today's gripping episode, we welcome Elliston Berry and her mother, Anna McAdams, who courageously recount their traumatic journey through online exploitation and the chilling reality of revenge porn. Elliston opens up about her freshman year of high school, which started with the innocence of homecoming and school sports but took a dark turn as she became entangled in the web of digital abuse. We dissect the overwhelming influence social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok have on teenagers, and how these digital spaces can turn harmful.
We also spotlight the heartrending experience of Mrs. Anna and her daughter Elliston, who faced a harrowing ordeal of cyberbullying after manipulated photos of Elliston were spread online. Mrs. Anna shares the emotional turmoil that followed, from the immediate support—or lack thereof—from family and school authorities, to the ongoing battle for justice and protection. This discussion emphasizes the critical role of parental vigilance and emotional support in navigating the dangers of social media and protecting our children from online cruelty.
As we delve into the unsettling discovery of an online predator within a school community, we uncover the far-reaching implications of AI in online safety. With the threat landscape evolving, traditional laws and school policies often fall short, leaving victims vulnerable. Hear about the ongoing advocacy efforts, including a press conference with Texas Senator Ted Cruz, and the urgent call for updated legislation to better protect our youth. Join us as we confront these pressing issues and rally for stronger laws and greater accountability from big tech to safeguard our children in the digital age. Help us in Ending Big Tech's Complicity in Revenge Porn by sharing this episode and speaking up and sharing your voice with your elected officials!
Our Voices for Voices® TV show and podcast is all about teaching you insanely actionable techniques to help you prosper, grow your self worth and personal brand.
So, if you are a high achiever or someone who wants more out of life, whether mentally, physically or spiritually, make sure you subscribe to our podcast right now!
As you can see, the Voices for Voices® show publishes episodes that focus on case studies, real life examples, actionable tips and "in the trenches" reports and interviews from subscribers like you.
If that sounds like something that could help you grow personally or professionally, then make sure to join me by subscribing!
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Welcome to the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I am your host, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, justin Allen Hayes. Thank you for joining us today. Voices for Voices is the number one ranked TV show and podcast where people turn to for expert mental health, recovery, career advancement, intelligence. Our TV show and podcast is all about teaching you insanely actionable techniques that help you prosper, grow yourself and self-worth, as well as your personal brand. So if you're a high achiever or someone who wants more out of life, whether mentally, physically or spiritually, please make sure to subscribe to our show right now. We're everywhere audio, video. Wherever you like to consume your content, you can find us. As you can see, our show publishes fresh episodes each week that focus on case studies, real-life examples, actionable tips and in-the-trenches reports and interviews from subscribers just like you. So if that sounds like something that could help you grow personally or professionally, then make sure to join me by subscribing Today's guests. We are just thrilled and grateful that they're able to join us today. Not a great topic, but we're glad that they're able to join us today, and so I'll do a little bit of a lead-in to introduce for our viewers and our listeners.
Speaker 1:So one of the areas that has been evolving is AI. So artificial intelligence I think everybody has a little bit of mixed views on whether it's good, bad, how it's being used, and so you take kind of that technology and then you really bring in kind of that child exploitation, individuals in ways that aren't appropriate for anybody anything to be put out there. And so our guests today they are going to be talking through that. Our guests that are joining us came to my attention while I was perusing the news last week and came across a hearing in Dallas, texas, that the US Senate Commerce Committee ranking member, ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, held, and he held this and the topic was the Take it Down, ending Big Tech's Complicity in Revenge Porn.
Speaker 1:So our guest we have the daughter who was the victim and the individual that was and is continuing to work through the process, and her mother as well is going to join us to give that feedback from a parent standpoint. As our viewers and listeners know, I have a five-year-old daughter and so this type of topic it really just kind of just terrified me of what types of things in the future that my daughter might be exposed to. So, without further ado, I want to introduce Ms Elliston Berry and Mrs Anna McAdams. Thank you for joining us on the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thanks for having us.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, allison, you're very brave to stand up and speak out and be an advocate for the unfortunate events that have occurred. I know as someone who's 42, it's hard sometimes to talk about different topics when we're talking about us personally and that. So I want to thank you for being the advocate for yourself. So it shows a lot of strength. You're welcome. So if we could maybe start from the beginning You're growing up right just as a kid, having fun school, all those types of things and then we can get into what occurred. And then the second episode we can talk about some of the legislation that we're hoping to get through for the nation and how that is having some roadblocks with big tech, and and then we can close with how people can learn more about you, the work you do, how they can support, support you. So I'll send a few like to go. You know the, you know the floor.
Speaker 2:I guess I it all started. You want me to start from what happened that day.
Speaker 1:If you don't start from maybe like the beginning, just how, like you know life was like normal.
Speaker 2:You know the normal yeah, I mean I was in freshman year, my first year in high school, and I had homecoming and volleyball games because I am a volleyball player, as well as football games. I had my small group on Wednesday and I had birthday parties. The beginning of freshman year was very fun. I had a blast and I was constantly with people. It really gave me high hopes for the entire high school because it was just so fun and, although school can be a little Debbie Downer throughout the whole or throughout that time it was, it was fun. There was a lot of good moments, moments in it and, up until this situation, I really enjoyed freshman year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I know, kind of turning the clock back for me, thinking about freshman year that, yeah, there's, you know there's. There's good parts, there's parts of I I was bullied a little bit to to an extent, and so there's some of those areas and things that are uh, that happen, uh, and a little bit of the newness of, okay, I'm in, I'm in high school, so I got four years and then what am I going to do next with my life? So that that's. That's great to hear that things were normal in as they can be, uh, at that that time.
Speaker 1:Maybe we'll talk a little bit next about Instagram, just in general, of social media and how that that platform and just social media in general, how that is impacting just your you and your, your fellow classmates and in the world, because you're growing up with it. I, I got social media kind of in my 20s, so you know to be able to be growing up and you know to capture moments and and those types of things well, I got social media at a young age just because it seemed harmless and it was just another app that was popular, so I've had it.
Speaker 2:I've been familiar with all the apps for quite some time now and everybody uses it. It's it's more rare for someone not to have it and that's everyone's main form of communication. It's everything you do is post on there. People are always filming or texting you or posting or making videos, just everything like that. Everything is on like Snapchat or Instagram or TikTok and just things like that. And growing up with it it's kind of interesting because normally I wouldn't be able to see everything from like fifth grade, but I have so much memories that I'm just able to look back on and it's kind of it's very weird seeing all of that and I have it just easily on my phone and stuff and it's kind of it's really weird seeing how it's kind of backfired and how it's done harm to me. But Snapchat and Instagram and TikTok were all made with pretty good intentions and to see that it turned around and made something horrible is like very upsetting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Mrs Anna, how was that just as a parent growing up with as far as social media and having a daughter, Was it? I guess? How was it? Like you know, as far as I'm thinking of as a parent, I am watching a five-year-old and different things. As I'm thinking of as a parent, I'm watching a five-year-old in different things, but then knowing that there's, you know, it's just like I said, in the palm of our hand, we have kind of the whole world, you know, photos and comments and videos. How is that from your perspective of kind of growing up with Elliston, with this?
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, I guess you know we never expected anything like this to happen. So it's so innocent. You know, growing up and watching her, do her videos and you know her friends and that kind of thing, you just don't expect that it could turn around and be something that could be cruel or harmful. And as a parent, I mean we had, you know, we've all. I've always monitored everything she's doing. I'm on those apps as well. So you know, I feel like I'm a part of it, so that I'm kind of in the background but watching. But then when this happened to us last fall, I mean you can't prepare for it and I couldn't protect her. So that was part of it was really hard's. Just, you know, something that happened and yet as a parent, there really wasn't anything I could do. So you know, early October is when this happened. She was 14. I mean, she was a baby and you know there's nothing that we could do to protect her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I just can't even fathom the experience of having having this, this event, occur. So we'll jump right in when you know, waking up that morning and getting the influx of flurry of texts, and we can work our way that way.
Speaker 2:Well, it was October 2nd and it was just a Monday, a normal Monday, and I had woken up with one of my really good friends texting me and calling me. I had received calls from the night before and she was just texting me and saying she sent me a collage of photos. It was a photo of these two edited photos of her and I, and then the original photo of her and the original photo of me, and she created this collage to show the fake image and then the real image to prove that they're fake and she had. She had given me a lot of information, except that these were going around and that someone had sent her these and just asking me what to do. And it was six in the morning and I had a long day ahead and I was speechless. I had no idea even what to say. It felt like all thoughts were wiped from my head. I was absolutely distraught and I didn't even I had no idea how to come about the situation. I didn't even want to tell my mom, but I was just so scared and I tried to not think about it as I was getting ready, but as she was texting me and asking me, like, what to do and she had told me. She told her mom. I was like, well, maybe I should probably tell mine.
Speaker 2:And I went and I was crying and I went up to to my mom and I had showed her these photos and then throughout, on the way to school, I had volleyball practice in the morning and my mom was just very send me that, send me that, let me call. Let me call her mom. I'm calling this school Like she was. My mom, thankfully, was very prominent about trying to reach somebody and explain what's going on and I'm very, very grateful for that. But throughout volleyball I was absolutely terrified and I didn't do my best. I was so overwhelmed and stressed out and it was so scary because I felt as if my whole team had seen these images and my thoughts were reflecting on my how I was playing and that just was not good for me and stuff. It was really stressful and overwhelming. But by second period I was able to be in the front office giving my statement to a police officer.
Speaker 1:Okay, that was going to be. My next question is how receptive or not was the administration when it was brought up? So was the administration receptive to you know search for justice, or was there any pushback at any point in that?
Speaker 3:Yes, I'll answer that part. We have come up against a lot of resistance with all of it. I think in the beginning, that first day, I don't think they took us serious at all and so it was more like, oh okay, we'll handle it, or whatever, and it just didn't. They just didn't really. I don't think they really were like, okay, we've got to figure out who this is. You know, it was kind of like, oh okay, we hear what you're saying. The police came in, they interviewed us. You know, at that point they were going to turn it over to the sheriff's office and have someone get a hold of us. But we never heard anything else that day. Of course we took the girls out of school at that point and they really didn't want to let them, like, stay out of school. They were like, oh, they'll be fine, just send them to school. But of course, emotionally they were just post. I mean, they were just so emotionally drained by all of what was happening.
Speaker 3:And as the day progressed, that Monday, more girls. He was targeting more of their friend group and so by Tuesday all nine girls had been targeted and at that point he started threatening. So as on snapchat he made the group and then he would send out the friend request. If you, if you, you know, if you, if you friended him, then you got all the pictures and people started asking him you know, why are you doing this? This is awful, stop, you know. And so he started saying stuff like um, I want to go out with a bang, I, I want to ruin the girls, I'm suicidal. So at that point you're no longer just sending out these awful pictures. Now there's the threat of oh, could you come to school with a gun, with a bomb, that kind of thing.
Speaker 3:So of course, all of us parents at that point went back up to the school on Tuesday and were like you have to do something about this. And so at that point, I think they started taking it more serious and started interviewing kids, if you know anybody and all the girls were trying to figure out who it was. Their friends were trying to do the same, and so you know, they were given the school names of hey, you know you need to talk to this person. We've got to figure out who this is. In the meanwhile, he's continuing to send out pictures. So it was kind of a whole week of not knowing who he was first of all and then just not knowing what was going to show up next, you know. So the girls pretty much stayed out of school that week, with some resistance from the school, but they they did allow them to stay at home and do their work from home. Um, that was quite a week of just not knowing, like what's going to happen here.
Speaker 3:I I mean is is our you know our, you know pictures have been tampered with. But now I mean, we have to worry about going to school and our wellbeing. As far as just you know, is he going to come to school and hurt us? So that whole week was quite a? Um, a roller coaster. Um, that Friday of that week, uh, she had a volleyball game, and so the girls, they were like we need to go to school, we need to try to go. On that Friday they went, and then by second period, the school went into lockdown, which is we still don't know why that happened, but it did Um. But during the lockdown he um went online and started posting more pictures, and so that's what ultimately caught him, because he was on the school wi-fi and so it was able to locate who it was based on him being on the school wi-fi. So we we did on that friday no well, we didn't know who it was, but the school did, so they were able to take some action that way yeah, that's uh's.
Speaker 1:I mean it's awful and I can think about. We about a year ago had a guest that was a victim of sextortion and the people that were, I guess, leading the actual sextortion they were, I think they were in Africa or somewhere in a different country. And what we've started to learn with other guests and just as time goes on, that these individuals who kind of prey, you know the being a predator, in a sense that it's not people, it's not what some may assume, that oh well, it's coming from somebody in a different country, and then there's all kinds of extra law enforcement hoops and country to country things that have to go on.
Speaker 2:So to learn that, even though it took five days to learn that it was somebody not only in the US but at the school that had, I guess how did you feel when you learned that it was somebody at the school, that it wasn know some random person, just found pictures it was terrifying, especially because the student that did this was a classmate of mine and I had classes with him prior in eighth grade, and it was really scary knowing that someone who I didn't even know had bad intentions, and someone that I thought was truly innocent could do such a thing to me as well as my friends None of the girls had any negative relationship with him so it was really hurtful seeing that he did this.
Speaker 2:We don't know why he did this is what I'm basically trying to say is we don't know what his intentions were or what is supporting this. It's just really scary knowing that anyone could do this and the editing app he did use is totally free and it's accessible for all Google users, and it's accessible for all Google users and it's just all the resources that are there and someone could easily do this.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, and that's something that is an awful side of AI and some of these apps and programs. That again, how social media kind of started with good intentions and then over time things fade a little bit. The same thing with AI Like, oh, here's this tool, it's going to be great, it's going to reduce time to do a project or something. To do a project or something, but then to know that AI was involved kind of with that next level, with photos, kind of third party bringing photos from Instagram I believe it said that they were modifying and that's just incredibly. As you said, it's got to be just terrifying because these tools, these apps, they're available for anybody and and that is you know with.
Speaker 1:So, with you coming out and speaking, I guess, as I mentioned, it's, it's, it's great that you're are, you're coming out, you're speaking or advocating, because more people need to learn and to know about what's actually going on. Uh, because it's happening. It's not, you know, happening thousands and you know, thousands of miles away. It's happening right here in the united states and you know I lived in Houston for a couple years, so definitely a great state of Texas, so you know to know that that's occurring.
Speaker 1:It is hard and especially with having that resistance from law enforcement. That had to be. I would just in my mind. It would be so frustrated and so upset that you know you have the actual act of doing the manipulation with the photos. But then, like like you said, ann, about you know bringing, potentially, you know weapons and you know potential, you know threats like that. I mean that that's that's on a whole new level, that's you know whether whether the photo experience was happening or not. When somebody's talking and they're going to threatening, I have to take it serious and do you think maybe that was a little bit of a tipping point, uh, with with the administration starting to take things serious?
Speaker 3:well. Well, we just pushed it so much. I mean, the problem was is that there is nothing in the student code of conduct and there is nothing in the law as of right now that would address this AI manipulation. So they really didn't know what to do with that. So it was that part of it was hard was, even working with the sheriff, like they realized what he did, they could see that it was that part of it was hard was, you know, even working with the sheriff, like they realized what he did. They could see that it was child pornography, but there wasn't anything there to help them to prosecute. So it was like we're all just running up against the wall. Like we know, this has happened, we can see and it's awful, but we don't know what to do with it. And so the school um ended up um putting him in school suspension. But it was really hard because they never would tell us when he was coming back.
Speaker 1:So that whole semester.
Speaker 3:You know the girls are just beside himself going oh am I going to school today? And he's going to show up. And so that was hard, just in that imbalance, that influx period of just not knowing. Is he going to show back up? That influx period of just not knowing. Is he going to show back up? And then the sheriff's office ended up prosecuting him, but with a Class A misdemeanor and so for just distribution of harmful materials. And so it really was a slap on the wrist and he ended up getting probation and then, of course, when he's 18, it'll be expunged. He'll have no recourse whatsoever. No one will ever know that he did this, or their girls are going to have to live with this for the rest of their lives, not knowing.
Speaker 3:Could it show up when I go to college, when I go for a job? You know those pictures. We can't for sure say that they're completely gone, you know. So we're going to. He chose a path for these girls that they never would have imagined for themselves. So we're going to have to live with that. And so the school my husband and I went to the school board and we tried to ask them to please he needs to not come back to school period. You need to do the right thing. Not only these pictures are out there, but he's threatened, the student body as a whole and and they wouldn't do the right thing. So he ended up not coming back to school, but only because his parents took him out of school, not because the school stood up and did the right thing as far as trying to protect our daughters. So we really have not gotten the kind of response that we wanted from the school.
Speaker 1:Oh, I mean, this gives me shivers, like thinking about that. An event happens, we know it's bad, the law enforcement knows it's bad and, like you said, it's not in the code of conduct, it's not in legislation, it's just, oh my gosh, so hard. But there is a little bit of hope coming with the press conference that you had with Senator Ted Cruz and we'll pick that up on the second part of our conversation. So we'll close out this part and then we'll start up with that point and being the advocate and how that communication went with his office and then, just like you're doing today, you're being an advocate for yourself. The other girls that have been affected at your school, as well as so many others, unfortunately probably don't know, maybe, and may have a harder time finding out who actually is behind it. So, ellison and Anna, thank you for joining us on this episode and we'll see you on episode part two here shortly.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:You're welcome and we want to thank you our viewers, our listeners, our loyal supporters for joining us on this episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. A powerful episode, very transparent activities, current events that are happening right here in our own country. They're happening right here. They're not happening in other places. They may be happening there, but we are having our own citizens that are being targeted and we need, as we'll find in our second part, we need some momentum from some lawmakers, and so hopefully that has darted. So catch us on episode two on next Wednesday, and so until next time, I am your host, justin Allen Hayes, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, and, as our guests have and they always are, be a voice for you or somebody in need. Take care.
