Most popular social media sites have reported an increase in reports of online child abuse. (Representative)
Reports of online child abuse at several of the biggest tech and social media firms, including Meta Platforms Inc’s Instagram and Alphabet Inc’s Google, have risen over the past year.
According to a Tuesday report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, TikTok, Amazon.com Inc. K Twitch, Reddit Inc. and chat apps Omegle and Discord Inc. There was also an increase in
The US child protection agency is expected to receive more than 32 million reports of online solicitation, child sexual abuse material and child sex trafficking in 2022 – nearly 2.7 million more than last year.
While child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, was the largest category, there was an 82% increase in reports regarding online solicitation. The center partly credits the rise in financial “sextortion,” which involves targeting children to share explicit photos and blackmailing them for money.
A spokesperson for the center said, “If you see an increase in reports from 2021 to 2022, it can be attributed primarily to reports submitted by electronic service providers, who are already reporting a significant amount to Cyber Tipline.” Submitting the report.” , In 2022, the group sent 49,000 reports to law enforcement.
The biggest increase was seen in Meta and Google.
Discord and Omegle report more than fivefold. Google reports that more than doubled to 2.1 million. There has also been significant growth in TikTok, Twitch and Grindr.
Other companies including Meta’s Facebook and WhatsApp as well as Dropbox reported a declining trend. The jump between the reports in 2020 and 2021 was more significant at 35%.
Electronic service providers are legally required to report child sexual abuse material to the Center if they become aware of it. Over the past several years, tech firms and social media companies have developed increasingly powerful tools to proactively identify and remove online abuse.
Spokespeople for Reddit, Grindr, Discord, Amazon Photos, Twitch, Meta and Snapchat cited advanced detection of online abuse when asked to comment on the increase in the report. Several also said they were committed to removing the material.
Omegle, TikTok and Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Microsoft spokesperson shared the company’s Digital Security Content Report. Amazon said that it started collecting the data only in June, 2021.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)