The National Center on Sexual Exploitation has released its annual list of 12 mainstream contributors to sexual exploitation. This year’s rankings includes big tech companies, online retailers and a U.S. law that is at the root of all tech platform’s failure to prioritize safety.
- Apple’s record is rotten when it comes to child protection. This big tech titan refuses to detect child sex abuse material, hosts dangerous apps with deceptive age ratings and descriptions, and won’t default safety features for teens.
- Cash App. “Do more with your money” shouldn’t apply to buying sex and paying for abusive content. This peer-to-peer payment app appeals to pimps, predators and pedophiles looking for a covert way to conduct criminal activity.
- Communications Decency Act Section 230. The Greatest Enabler of Online Sexual Exploitation. Misinterpretations of Communications Decency Act Section 230 grant big tech blanket immunity for any and all types of sexual abuse and exploitation they facilitate. Until we amend CDA 230, corporations can’t be held accountable.
- Providing a platform for sex buyers, traffickers and deep fakers. Cloudflare says it wants to build a better internet. So why does it provide services to some of the most prolific prostitution forums and deep-fake sites?
- Discord is a hotspot for dangerous interactions and deep fakes. This platform is popular with predators seeking to groom kids and with creeps looking to create, trade or find sexually abusive content of children and unsuspecting adults.
- The world’s largest professional network is an amateur when it comes to stemming sexual exploitation. LinkedIn legitimizes Pornhub and other exploitative enterprises by providing them a platform, overlooks users promoting deep-fake pornography tools and fails to stop rampant sexual harassment against women.
- “Moving fast” and making money at all costs leaves children to pay the price. Meta’s launch of end-to-end encryption, open-sourced AI and virtual reality are unleashing new worlds of exploitation, while its platforms such as Instagram continue to rank among the most dangerous for kids.
- Microsoft’s GitHub. Microsoft’s GitHub is the global hub for creating sexually exploitative AI tech. The vast majority of deep fakes, “nudify” apps and AI-generated child sex abuse content originates on this platform owned by the world’s richest company.
- Reddit is riddled with sexploitation. Child sex abuse material, sex trafficking and image-based sexual abuse hide in plain sight among endless pornography subreddits allowed on this platform, content which will be further monetized now that Reddit is public.
- Roblox treats child protection like a game. Among the avatars, blocks and buildings, kids are exposed to predators, rape-themed games and age-inappropriate content such as sex parties.
- “MusicPorn for everyone.” Sexually explicit images, sadistic content and networks trading child sex abuse material on its platform prove Spotify is out of tune with basic child safety measures and moderation practices.
- Known as the “dark web alternative,” Telegram unleashes a new era of exploitation. Messaging app Telegram serves as a safe haven for criminal communities across the globe. Sexual torture rings, sextortion gangs, deep-fake bots and more all thrive on an alarming scale.
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice