Instagram, Google see surge in reports of online child abuse

The US child safety agency received over 32 million reports involving online enticement, child sexual abuse material and child sex trafficking in 2022 – some 2.7 million more than the year before. — Image by kstudio on Freepik

Reports of child exploitation online increased at many of the biggest tech and social media firms over the last year, including Meta Platforms Inc.’s Instagram and Alphabet Inc.’s Google.

TikTok, Amazon.com Inc.’s Twitch, Reddit Inc., and the chat apps Omegle and Discord Inc. also saw increases, according to a Tuesday report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.