Report urges fixes to online child exploitation CyberTipline before AI makes it worse

Pages from the CyberTipline website are seen on a computer in New York on Friday, April 19, 2024. A tipline set up 26 years ago to combat online child exploitation is ‘enormously valuable’ but hasn’t lived up to its potential. That’s what a new report from the Stanford Internet Observatory released on Monday, April 22, 2024 has found. — AP

A tipline set up 26 years ago to combat online child exploitation has not lived up to its potential and needs technological and other improvements to help law enforcement go after abusers and rescue victims, a new report from the Stanford Internet Observatory has found.

The fixes to what the researchers describe as an “enormously valuable” service must also come urgently as new artificial intelligence technology threatens to worsen its problems.