BRUSSELS: India topped the list for the highest amount of content, including videos and images of child abuse, uploaded on social media, said a report by the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol).
The report revealed that around 5.67 million videos and images of child sexual acts were uploaded from India in 2022. Bangladesh and Indonesia ranked third and fourth, with a combined upload of 2.76 million and 1.8 million videos and images, respectively.
Meta Platforms Report 21.17 Million Child Abuse Images in 2022
Social media platforms Facebook and Instagram reported a total of 21.17 million and 0.55 million obscene images or content to national authorities, respectively. In 2022, Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, identified and reported 26 million images on its platforms. Snapchat and TikTok, popular among teenagers, submitted over 550,000 and nearly 290,000 reports to the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The European Commission, under the Digital Services Act (DSA), ordered Meta to explain its efforts in combating the spread of illegal sexual images involving minors on Instagram. The report also highlighted the challenges faced by international detectives in investigating crimes, especially those involving child exploitation shared online.
Europol’s database, established in 2016, now holds 85 million unique photos and videos found on the “dark web.” The increasing use of encrypted communication online has made it more difficult for investigators to track down offenders and combat the rise in abusive images and videos during the pandemic.
