Generally, MAP community leaders advise following the law. Part legal disclaimer and part not wanting to be responsible for their friends getting arrested, advising such is the safest and most responsible course of action.

But what happens when you have a country that publicly targets MAPs who are not even committing crimes, whose government and media blatantly accuse them of doing things they haven’t done? And when the establishment threatens to shut their perfectly legal sites and track down the users?

That is the horrific path taken by France under its hapless High Commissioner for Children Sarah El Hairy, against a backdrop of authoritarian actions that include the arrest of a foreign national who merely operated a mainstream messaging app.

El Hairy recently accused French site La Garçonnière of being part of a ‘pedocriminal ecocystem’, and of distributing child pornography. Lazy journalists reported this as fact, defaming site operators in the process. In response, a La Garçonnière member who is credibly linked to the French government allegedly warned El Hairy that he had damaging information on senior French links to Epstein, and that she may want to watch her back. Exciting stuff! This led to widespread media coverage, with more silly accusations leveled against what is essentially a group of aging French MAPs having a chat about the glory days.

I do think the most likely cause of the dramatic claims is nobody ever actually checking what they’re told. One shoddy journalist performs a subpar investigation, and in a game of Chinese Whispers, allegations escalate from MAPs merely chatting with like-minded friends (the reality) to the board being a den of kiddie porn and child trafficking. It's understandable that journalists might not want to check a pedophile site for its content, but well... dealing with uncomfortable content is part of being a journalist. It's not a reasonable excuse for spreading what are in fact falsehoods.

If El Hairy’s dramatic threats of tracking down users are carried out, major damage will be done even if the users are innocent of any crime and never end up in a courtroom. For all that your life will be irreparably damaged by being outed as a MAP, you might as well have been guilty of cold-blooded murder! Ultimately, this fiasco has shone a light on the grim extent to which the French establishment deems a MAP an automatic ‘pedocriminal’, and how it will conjure up criminality where none exists, potentially culminating in a raid.

The question at this point, ironically, is whether it's even worth following the laws as a French MAP. Adhering to such laws to the letter is already a massive burden when literally any possible expression of your sexuality, including viewing images of cartoon children, is criminalized. If you’re just as likely to have your door broken down for merely talking with peers on a perfectly lawful message board, what is the point in worrying about any of the laws?

Alas, for El Hairy - quite the moral crusader - the consequences are never really considered. She is evidently a woman who does not think about the implications of her words before she speaks. The drama she stoked over Chinese sex dolls did absolutely nothing to protect children, and now she’s sending the message that MAPs are automatically criminals and therefore might as well just do whatever the hell they want, while crucially ignoring the threat of some pretty spicy information being leaked in response to her latest campaign.

I do want to say to the man who threatened the leak, if he's reading this, how about leaking just a little? You know, enough to make the establishment realize that FAFO is a thing, even when a pitiful MAP is the target. I don't suggest murdering El Hairy in her sleep, which is how she conveniently interpreted the alleged threats, but it would be good if the powers that be gave her a bit of a talking to about restraint.