Maine’s Democratic Senate hopeful, Graham Platner, finds himself entangled in a new issue that won’t be easily swept aside.
An investigative report by The Wall Street Journal, released on Friday, uncovers a connection between Platner and an active account on Kik. This messaging platform is notorious for its association with child exploitation, having been repeatedly flagged by law enforcement and online safety experts as a threat to young users.
The account in question, operating under the username “phustle0331,” prominently displayed a mirror selfie of a man draped in a towel. This profile is linked to other online identities affiliated with Platner and was reportedly active as recently as this week.
Following inquiries, Platner’s campaign acknowledged to the Wall Street Journal that the account indeed belonged to him. The campaign provided an explanation for its existence:
The account was established on June 26, 2016, a time when Kik was already infamous nationwide for being a tool used by predators to target minors anonymously, drawing significant criticism from child protection advocacy groups.
Kik’s structure is built around anonymity—users need only a username, without disclosing real names or phone numbers. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation has labeled it a “Predator’s Paradise,” highlighting the inherent risks in its core design:
Kik’s design has always centered on anonymity. No real name. No phone number. Just a username and a stranger on the other end. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation has called it a “Predator’s Paradise,” describing its core function plainly:
“It’s designed to be connecting people with strangers.”
Roughly 70 percent of users were between ages 13 and 24 before age restrictions were introduced. Federal prosecutors have noted that Kik “commonly comes up” across child exploitation cases nationwide. Court documents described the app as “frequently used by individuals who trade child pornography because it is free, simple to set up, easily accessible, potentially anonymous.”
And when offenders were convicted, their profiles stayed up and accessible long after sentencing.
Maine has not been spared. In 2025, a Maine man was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison after prosecutors proved he produced child sexual abuse videos for other Kik users. A separate case involved a man accused of photographing children at sporting events and using artificial intelligence to sexualize those images.
Which brings us back to Platner. A man running for the U.S. Senate, on a platform of fighting for working people, maintained an active profile on an app that federal prosecutors have spent years describing as a recurring tool in child exploitation cases and that child safety organizations have labeled a “Predator’s Paradise.” His explanation? He deleted the app. Just never closed the account.
The Kik profile is not an isolated footnote. Deleted Reddit posts previously surfaced, in which Platner called himself a “communist” and blamed sexual assault victims for their own assaults. His wife confirmed that she disclosed his explicit texts to other women to the campaign herself, as RedState wrote earlier on Saturday. Each time, the campaign’s answer has been the same: old news, political hit job, move on.
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The Kik profile is harder to wave away. This is not an angry Reddit comment from 2021. It is an account on a platform that federal prosecutors have spent years flagging as a tool for child exploitation, and it was still active this week.
Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) has called Platner’s controversies “disqualifying.” Despite that, a University of New Hampshire poll still shows him leading Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) by nine points. That number will mean nothing if Maine voters decide that maintaining a profile on a platform law enforcement calls a “Predator’s Paradise” is not the kind of judgment they want in the U.S. Senate.
Platner’s defense is that he forgot to close the account. Maine’s children deserved better than that excuse. So do Maine’s voters.
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