The
Technology Coalition, which coordinates industry action around
child sexual abuse, also said its 18 member companies would
establish a "multi-million" dollar research fund to study
patterns of abuse and build technological tools to prevent them.
Multiple governments have seized on child exploitation as a
major issue in their fight to ban encryption in consumer
technologies, which they argue allows criminals to operate with
impunity.
"We'd love to move beyond just the number of reports that may be
out there, to really understanding what those reports mean,"
said Antigone Davis, Facebook's global head of safety.
The coalition, whose companies collectively earn hundreds of
billions of dollars in revenue each year, declined to provide
more details, including specifics about which metrics would be
tracked.
Child welfare advocates say the number of known child sexual
abuse images has soared from thousands to tens of millions in
recent years, as predators have increasingly used social
networks to groom victims and exchange explicit images.
The U.S.-led "Five Eyes" alliance last year threatened to weaken
legal protections and called on Facebook to suspend plans to
extend end-to-end encryption across its messaging services.
Facebook generated more than 90% of U.S. child sexual abuse
reports online last year, according to the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children.
U.S. lawmakers introduced the "EARN IT Act," in March which
would require tech companies to follow best practices to "earn"
legal immunity from content posted on their platforms.
U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel, who joined the Five Eyes calls,
welcomed the industry's latest moves but urged companies to
"work quickly and go further."
"The sexual abuse of children online is sickening and we must
all work collaboratively to eradicate this crime," she said.
(Reporting by Katie Paul; editing by Jane Wardell)
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