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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Technology
Katie McQue

UK watchdog accuses Apple of failing to report sexual images of children

The Apple Inc logo, a white apple, is featured on a building
In 2023, Apple made just 267 reports of suspected child sexual abuse material on its platforms worldwide to National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Photograph: Stephen Lam/Reuters

Apple is failing to effectively monitor its platforms or scan for images and videos of the sexual abuse of children, child safety experts allege, which is raising concerns about how the company can handle growth in the volume of such material associated with artificial intelligence.

The UK’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) accuses Apple of vastly undercounting how often child sexual abuse material (CSAM) appears in its products. In a year, child predators used Apple’s iCloud, iMessage and Facetime to store and exchange CSAM in a higher number of cases in England and Wales alone than the company reported across all other countries combined, according to police data obtained by the NSPCC.

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