It is almost time to reveal the 2024 Dirty Dozen List!
The Dirty Dozen List is one of NCOSE’s most impactful campaigns in which we ask you to join us in calling out 12 mainstream corporations and entities that facilitate, enable, and even profit from sexual abuse and exploitation.
By taking action through the Dirty Dozen List campaign, concerned citizens like YOU have rocked some of the most powerful corporations in the world, pushing them towards major changes that prioritize people over profit.
With the reveal of the 2024 list fast approaching, it’s a great time to look back on what we’ve accomplished together since last year’s Dirty Dozen List!
Victories & Progress with the 2023 Dirty Dozen List Targets
Snapchat: 90% of young people in 20+ countries 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).”
Kik: 1/3 of American teens protected
Kik, the app which a convicted child molester called “a predator’s paradise,” acquiesced to almost all of the requests made through the 2023 Dirty Dozen List! These include making the platform 18+, requiring email verification to create accounts, using bots to monitor livestreams for nudity and inappropriate comments, creating an option to block direct messages from strangers, and drastically limited the amount of sexually explicit content.
Prior to changing the age of the platform, Kik was used by over a third of American teens, and 70% of their users were 13 – 24 years old.
Discord: 25% of 11-12 year-old Americans 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!
Apple: Up to 40% of 8-12 year-old Americans protected
After two years of asking Apple to automatically blur nude images, they finally agreed to do so for kids 12 and under in iMessage, FaceTime, Air Drop, and Photos picker. According to estimates, this may protect up to 40% of American 8-12 year-olds!
We continue to press on Apple to automatically block nudity for all minors, including teens.
Reddit: 43% of American teens protected
Reddit updated their child safety policy to more specifically prohibit various types of content and activities sexualizing children. They also partially restricted access to pornography, as well as bots which we had brought to their attention as facilitating the proliferation of child sexual abuse material and image-based sexual abuse across the app.
Research from Thorn shows that 34% of minors 9-17 and 43% of minors 13-17 have used Reddit at least once.
Instagram: 78% of American teens 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 as of December 2023, so NCOSE continues to press on Instagram.
Victories & Progress with Former Year Dirty Dozen List Targets or Other Corporations
Sometimes advocacy takes more than one year to come to fruition. In 2023, we also saw these major victories with corporations that have been on the Dirty Dozen List in previous years and/or corporations which we have pressed on in other ways.
Google: 5.3 billion searches per day made safe
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.”
Wizz, “Kid Tinder,” Removed from Google Play
Updated 4/9/24: On April 8, 2024, during a standard review, NCOSE discovered that Google had unexpectedly reinstated the Wizz app. At the time of this blog’s publication, Google had yet to reinstate the app.
Wizz, an app called the Tinder for Teens and “kid tinder,” targeted teenage users looking for romantic or sexual connections. Sextortion was disturbingly rampant on Wizz, with 40% of English-speaking users experiencing sextortion on the app, 77% of whom were minors. Further, Wizz was serving unskippable pornographic ads to minors, a clear violation of both Apple’s App Store and Google Play’s policies.
Given these facts, NCOSE emailed our contacts at Apple and Google, urging them to remove the app from their stores. Within 36 hours, both Apple and Google complied. However, Apple inexplicably reinstated the app later on, so we are continuing to press on them.
Etsy Removes Childlike Sex Abuse Dolls
Etsy was on the Dirty Dozen List in 2022 for selling childlike sex abuse dolls and other exploitative products. In March 2023, Etsy added an explicit prohibition of “depictions of sexualization of minors” to their policies, and NCOSE and our allies were unable to find any child sex abuse dolls on the retail site! The achievement of this victory was a global effort, with significant credit going to international allies Collective Shout and Defend Dignity.
TikTok: 85% of American teens 13-17 protected
TikTok, an app used by 85% of American teens, was on the Dirty Dozen List in 2020. They have made numerous substantive safety changes since then, including most recently announcing improvements to their Content Filtering tool, and establishing a Youth Council to inform safety decisions.
Meta’s Messenger: 69% of American teens 13-17 protected
Meta, whose Messenger app is used by 69% of American teens, was on the 2022 Dirty Dozen List. Corresponding to the 2022 requests we made, Meta finally released parental controls on Messenger. However, these controls are only available if the child chooses to opt-in.
Be Part of the Next Round of Victories!
If you have not already, be sure to sign up for the 2024 Dirty Dozen List Online Reveal Event, which will be held April 10th at 11:00 am EDT.
Additionally, if you want to be an even bigger part of fueling the next round of victories, please consider a donation to support campaigns like the Dirty Dozen List!
Thank you for your ongoing advocacy and support! We hope you are as encouraged as we are by the proof of what we can accomplish together!
