The abuse and sexual exploitation of minors through the Internet is a problem that is far from being solved. Reports of online child exploitation have increased on many of the largest tech and social networks over the past year, including Instagram and Google, according to a report by the US National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, seen by Bloomberg.
These two social networks were not the only platforms where complaints grew. According to the document, TikTok, Twitch, Reddit, and the chat apps Omegle and Discord also saw significant increases.
The US child safety agency received more than 32 million reports of online solicitation, child sexual abuse material and child sex trafficking in 2022, some 2.7 million more than the previous year.
The largest number of complaints was registered in the CSAM category or material of any visual representation, including photos, videos and computer-generated images, which implies the use of a minor in explicit sexual acts.
However, there has been a sharp increase in reports related to online incitement, known as financial “sextortion”. In this case, pedophiles target minors to share explicit photos and blackmail them for money.
Reports of child abuse on the Internet grew significantly on some platforms such as Discord and Omegle, where they increased fivefold. In the case of Google, they doubled to 2.1 million. TikTok, Twitch and Grindr also saw sizeable increases, according to the report seen by Bloomberg. Instead, Dropbox, Facebook and WhatsApp registered a downward trend.
From this American organization, they remember that technology companies and providers are legally obliged to report child sexual abuse material to the center when they detect it.