New report shares survivor experiences with tech companies’ failures to address online child sexual abuse material

Winnipeg, Canada- A new report by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P) finds that victims of child sexual abuse material suffer from wide-ranging harms throughout their lives, frequently exacerbated by failures of the technology industry to take action or respond to complaints.

“There must be an easier process developed for us victim-survivors. We shouldn’t have to spend 2+ hours every single day looking for our own abuse just so that companies will take it down. This shouldn’t be our job, yet it’s become clear that it is,” stated one survivor of child sexual abuse material.

Based on a survey of 281 survivors, the report, Experiences of child sexual abuse material survivors: How technology companies' inaction leads to fear, stalking, and harassment, sheds light on the online and offline physical, sexual, and verbal abuse endured by survivors. The report found many victims have been recognized as a result of the ongoing distribution of recordings of their abuse. The study also concluded that many victims who sought to have these images removed from the internet were confronted with unhelpful or non-responsive online service providers.

“There are zero excuses for allowing known child sexual abuse to be uploaded to a platform – the tools to prevent this from happening exist and have for years,” said Lianna McDonald, C3P’s Executive Director.

“These survivors have endured the most horrific abuse as children – to have that harm compounded by companies who first allow the content on their services and second fail to remove it when notified, or fail to make it possible to report it, is outrageous. This is exactly why we need the Online Harms Bill – until platforms are regulated, survivors will continue to pay the price of their inaction.”

One survivor reported that “people have mailed me the images and sent them through Twitter, threatening to dox me. I reported them for harassment and having child sexual abuse material; nothing happened.” Another shared, “I have definitely been harassed due to my sexual abuse and exploitation history, being sent threatening and taunting messages about raping and assaulting me, how they think I deserve it and wanted it, how it's good or right that I was raped and abused and exploited, describing in detail what they would do to me.”

Grounded in what survivors shared, this report proposes a number of concrete steps governments and industry can take to reduce the ongoing victimization of survivors. Given the tech industry’s decades of failures to protect children and survivors, C3P believes change will depend on governments enforcing regulatory frameworks rather than tech platforms voluntarily adopting these recommendations.

Read the full report and recommendations here.