Reporting abuse

When child sexual exploitation or abuse does take place online, it is important to have visible, accessible and child-friendly tools to report it.

Online reporting tools allow instant flagging of dangerous or inappropriate content. This helps ensure an efficient response from police and criminal justice, as well as protection for any child who is being abused.

Easily accessible reporting tools need to be combined with public information and outreach to ensure that children, parents, teachers, guardians and other caregivers are aware of online risks and know how to respond. Once reports are received, a filtering system (often using hashing or AI) should be applied to remove abusive content.