Instagram: 78% of American teens better protected

Instagram, an app used by a whopping 78% of American teens, enhanced their parental controls and increased protections in direct messaging. Further, they started a task force to investigate how Instagram facilitates the spread and sale of child sexual abuse material.

However, pedophile networks were found to still be active on Instagram as of December 2023, so NCOSE continues to press on Instagram.

Snapchat: 90% of young people in 20+ countries better protected.

Snapchat improved detection and removal of sexually explicit/exploitative content, protecting the  90% of young people in 20+ countries that use this app!

In a public statement, Snapchat thanked NCOSE for influencing these improvements, stating:

“Several of our new product safeguards were informed by feedback from the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE).”

Discord: 25% of 11-12 year-old Americans better protected

Discord activated higher safety settings by default and improved policies on child sexualization. This protects the 25% of American children aged 11-12 who use this app! However, learn why they are still on the Dirty Dozen list for the 4th consecutive year!

Google: 5.3 billion searches per day made safer.

Google or one of its sub-brands has been on the Dirty Dozen List from 2013 through 2022. Last year, they finally implemented a change that we have been pressing on them to make for a decade: automatically blurring sexually explicit images!

Thanks to this common-sense safety change, 5.3 billion Google searches per day no longer expose unsuspecting children or adults to pornography.

In announcing the new policy, Google wrote,

“We appreciate the feedback from survivors and subject matter experts like the National Center on Sexual Exploitation that help improve practices around online safety.”