By: Brandon Kaopuiki, Adviser, IJM Hub Against Online Sexual Exploitation of Children
In 2020, 65.4 million images, videos, and other files related to child sexual exploitation were reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
Most of the illegal content reported to NCMEC’s CyberTipline was found by technology designed to detect previously identified child sexual exploitation materials (CSEM) in the form of photos and videos. These tools unfortunately still fail to detect a significant form of CSEM — livestreaming video, whether produced by manipulative “groomers” or by violent traffickers.
Despite the need to address this gap, PhotoDNA and related tools are currently facing attacks from both tech sector policies (like expanded adoption of end-to-end encryption) and government regulation (such as the European Union’s ePrivacy Directive). These attacks also threaten innovations to detect and disrupt other forms of online abuse, including the trafficking of children through livestreaming video.
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