- There was a sharp increase in child sexual abuse images online in 2020, the data show.
- Facebook reported that it detected 13 million images from July to September alone.
- Coronavirus blocks and live-transmitted abuse fueled the increase, an expert told Insider.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
There was a huge increase in child sexual abuse images posted and shared online during the coronavirus pandemic, many of them hosted on Facebook and Instagram, according to data shared exclusively with Insider.
Figures from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) showed a 31% increase in the number of child sexual abuse images reported to them in 2020.
The number has increased by about 5 million, from 16 million reports in 2020 to 21 million in 2021, said Yiota Souras, the NCMEC’s top lawyer.
In 2019, Facebook recorded more child sexual abuse material than any other technology company and was responsible for about 99% of all reports to NCMEC.
Although an analysis of the 2020 NCMEC numbers is not yet available, Facebook said it detected 13 million images on Facebook and Instagram in just July to September. The figure indicates that the problem is still rampant and may be getting worse.
The vast majority of the material is hosted on Facebook platforms
NCMEC data comes from its CyberTipLine, which collects reports of images, videos and other child abuse materials found online.
Some reports are punctual by members of the public. Others are sent en masse by technology platforms that have agreed to join the fight against the proliferation of sexual abuse images on their platforms.
NCMEC shares data with law enforcement agencies to locate those who make and share the material, which are crimes.
2019 NCMEC data showed that the vast majority of reported child sexual exploitation images, videos and other materials were hosted by Facebook, with 15.9 of the 16 million cases.
Souras said NCMEC expects to see the same levels of material on Facebook in 2020, a product of both the scale of its platforms and its proactive efforts to locate and remove that material.
Google followed, with 450,000 cases. The 2020 data set is expected to be published in February.
In a statement to Insider, a Google spokesman said the company uses “cutting edge technology, supported by specialized teams of human reviewers, to detect, remove and report such content to the authorities”.
Facebook proactively looks for images of abuse, but other technology companies don’t
In August, Facebook told Sky News UK that remote work during the coronavirus pandemic diminished its ability to identify and remove child sexual exploitation content.
A company source told Insider that between July and September alone, it identified and removed 13 million images of child sexual exploitation, 99% of which were found by the platform’s moderators rather than members of the public.
The company uses technology that scans its platforms for child sexual abuse images, which are removed, the source said. It also uses separate technology to proactively monitor the site for new images as they are uploaded.
Other companies do not proactively scan their platforms for content.
Facebook said it employs 15,000 reviewers, in addition to automated systems.
In a statement to Insider, a Facebook spokesman said: “Content that sexually exploits or puts children at risk is not allowed on our platforms. Using industry-leading technology, more than 99% of the child exploitation content we remove from Facebook and Instagram is found and removed before being reported to us.
“Our protection and safety team of more than 35,000 people investigates complaints from our community and works to keep our platforms safe. Our teams also work closely with child protection experts and police, reporting content directly to experts, including Child Exploitation. UK and Online Protection Command and NCMEC. “
Live broadcast abuse increases reporting spike
Souras, NCMEC’s top board, said coronavirus blockages and an increase in live broadcast abuse are behind the increase.
The pandemic “created a real increase in the victimization of children online and their vulnerability, because they are online a lot more, often without care, often at a much earlier age than their parents had predicted, putting them online for hours for day, “she said.
Souras said children are often abused by someone close to them, and the blocking rules introduced to slow the spread of the coronavirus have restricted some children’s ability to get help.
“Looking at some of the analysis behind the reports we received, we know that [victims] often have a close family or adult relationship with their abuser.
Most of the content is created by caregivers of children
“So it could be a family member in the house or it could be a spouse or partner, or a roommate, a technician, a nanny,” said Souras. “This is the vast majority of content creation. It is someone in the most trustworthy relationship that a child can have: a caretaker who is also an aggressor.”
She said a new trend driving the increase is abuse broadcast live via webcam, rather than pre-recorded content.
“A relatively newer part of the spectrum of child exploitation that we see is live streaming. With individuals in some countries paying children to be abused through live streaming – usually countries like the Philippines and Southeast Asia. And they will pay for that, they will pay for acts to be committed against them, they will pay for the type of abuse they want to see, ”said Souras.
“This is really in any one of several companies that allow people to connect via video,” said Souras.
Conventional platforms that host a large number of images
In December, New York Times writer Nicholas Kristof reported that the porn site Pornhub was monetizing content that depicted minors being sexually abused.
In response, major credit card companies have broken ties with him, and Pornhub has removed a large number of videos from its website.
Insider reported last year that the blocking restrictions resulted in an increase in “revenge porn”, where a person’s sexually explicit material is shared online without their permission.
Currently, there is no legal requirement in the United States for technology companies to proactively search for child sexual abuse material on their platforms, although some do anyway. When such material is found, companies are legally required to report it to the NCMEC and remove it.
Although many pedophiles find and distribute material on the dark web, a part of the internet that cannot be accessed by normal search engines, Souras said the vast majority of reports are from materials found on platforms used by millions of people every day, such as Facebook and Google.
“People often say” is on the dark web, [which is] not where I am going, “but you look at our list of companies and have probably already been on half of those platforms. They are social media and gaming platforms, and other companies that provide business services,” she said.
The findings confirm the trends reported by the UK’s Internet Watch Foundation, which records reports of online child sexual abuse content in the UK.
In December, the Guardian reported that the charity had received a record number of complaints in 2020.
A U.S. bill proposes to deprive companies of legal protection if they are found hosting child abuse content
Souras said that, in the United States, stricter legislation is needed to force platforms to proactively detect and remove images of child sexual abuse.
She said NCMEC supported the EARN IT law, introduced to Congress last year by Senator Lindsey Graham.
The law aims to reverse the legal protections that technology companies have to host third party content, allowing them to be prosecuted for hosting child sexual abuse material.
The project has been criticized by some as a hidden attempt to pursue the Trump administration’s revenge against technology platforms. But it won enough bipartisan support for an amended version to pass scrutiny on Senate committees last year.
Toby Tyler, a spokesman for Graham’s office, said the bill would be presented at the new Congress, which was sworn in on January 3.