WASHINGTON, DC (May 24, 2024) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) said that tech companies must heed the new White House directive to confront image-based sexual abuse (IBSA), including AI-generated and real images distributed without knowledge or consent.
“Anyone can become a victim of image-based sexual abuse in an instant: whether someone has self-created images that are misused, someone is targeted for ‘deepfake’ creation or hidden camera capturing, or someone’s abuse is filmed and shared. The explosion of AI is already fueling the child sexual abuse material crisis and disproportionately affects women and girls. The White House has rightly directed tech companies to stem the inevitable tidal wave of harm caused by AI-generated sexually explicit images. Tech companies must find and enact solutions immediately,” said Dawn Hawkins, CEO, National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
“We are grateful that the White House has listened to survivors and other experts in identifying IBSA as one of the fastest-growing risks of deepfakes and AI, highlighting the urgency of the issue at the highest level.
“The reality is that the top tech companies like Apple, Meta, Google, and Microsoft are engaging in an AI arms race instead of preventing IBSA and child sexual abuse from flourishing on their platforms. For example, the vast majority of deepfakes, ‘nudify’ tools, and AI-generated child sexual abuse content originate on Microsoft’s GitHub. Nudifying apps are easily found on Apple and Google app stores, and Meta advertises them to children and adults alike across their platforms.
“To confront IBSA, it will require tech companies prioritizing prevention and intervention, and Congress swiftly passing substantive legislation providing victims justice and support,” Hawkins said.
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation is building solutions to IBSA, including survivor services, stronger state and federal legislation, civil litigation, online platform responsibility to remove non-consensual sexually explicit imagery swiftly, survivor-centered removal forms, and more.
About National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE)
Founded in 1962, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is the leading national non-partisan organization exposing the links between all forms of sexual exploitation such as child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking and the public health harms of pornography. https://endsexualexploitation.org/
