A Thirteen Year Old Girl Told Me About Her Sexual Exploitation

I am 18F (location: Colorado) The girl is 13F (location: Washington) The pedophile is 24M (location: Washington)

UNIMPORTANT CONTEXT: My very first interaction with this girl was nine days ago on tiktok, she DMd me asking to pay $25 to promote a video I made because she liked my art that much. She did it and I was shocked. Every day since then she has sent me 90+ messages on tiktok throughout the day, detailing random things going on with her, it felt parasocial to me so I ignored them and responded to them all at once hours and days later. She asked me to “guess her age” two days ago and I got a bad taste in my mouth for not shutting down a kid my sisters age confiding in me every day.

She messaged me today and said she had to tell me something that I couldn’t tell anyone.

She said she reached out to her ex today and he doesn’t know it’s her, I asked how come and she followed up saying he is 24 years old. I pressed for information: Is he an immediate threat? What information does he know about you? What information do you know about him?

They dated ten months ago when she was 12 years old. He knows her full legal name, her address, what she looks like, and he has explicit photos of her. She has all of their messages saved on discord, including pictures of his face but she does not remember his full name and address (though he told her it before). I got on a voice call with her and she read the messages he sent to her out loud from when they were dating ten months ago and the ones he sent to her today on a fake account she made to contact him again. They made me want to throw up. He is aware of her age and has sexual intent.

She told me she talks to this guy and many others like him, one under the alias “bear” a 38 year old man with a wife and two children who “gives her advice” on websites and apps. One of them being, “Emerald” which she found on a tiktok livestream, catching predators. She video shared these messages on call with me. She said she has talked to adults online since she was ten years old because she feels lonely and her parents do not love or care about her but old men online love her. I told her she needs to tell her parents this but she said I do not know what her parents are like and they will make her a laughing stock and tell everyone and belittle her. I told her this a parents worst nightmare to find out their baby is being groomed by pedophiles online, pedophiles that do not care about you, pedophiles that do not love you. pedophiles that want to and have exploited you and young girls and boys your age. Your parents will be mad as fuck and take your phone away but it needs to happen. You aren’t safe.

She was insistent on not telling her parents and I don’t know how to get through to her and I can’t make her do anything. So I told her to screenshot everything and compile it in a hidden folder on her phone and to go to her settings and hide the folder so her parents don’t immediately see it. I told her to cease all contact with the 24 year old and “bear” and every adult she is taking to, block them, and to delete and stop using the apps and websites she uses to find and contact these people. I told her to tell her therapist everything she told me today (in hopes she does and her therapist reports it). And keep everything screenshotted so when she is ready to report it to police she can have it all in one place and not deleted. She is in her last year of middle school and I told when she gets into high school it’s gonna be completely different, she wants to get into band and I told her to peruse that and meet people in band and her classes. She wants to get a job when she’s fourteen, I don’t know the Washington laws but in Colorado you can get a job at this age. I told her she has three opportunities to meet people her age and I understand feeling lonely but she can’t talk to adults online. It isn’t safe for her and she has been groomed into thinking it is okay. We called for two hours and my 12 year old sister came downstairs and talked to her with me and they played Roblox together. I told her I’d give her robux (roblox currency) if she stopped talking to these pedophiles and complied everything. She told me she deleted the Emerald app after our call.

I’m sorry this is so long. My heart is racing and I’m just like freaking out writing this.

What is washington’s laws on child exploitation like can she turn in this evidence when she’s older?? Is there a time frame? Does it expire? Should she turn it in now and tell her parents (ideally). Can we get this 24 year old man arrested with the little information we have about him? What can I do to help this girl?

If there is a better sub for this please let me know. Thank you.