WASHINGTON, DC (June 25, 2025) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) calls on X (formerly Twitter) to increase efforts to detect and report child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on the platform in light of a new NBC News report indicating CSAM is increasing.
NBC reported that, “A review of many hashtags with terms known to be associated with CSAM shows that the problem is, if anything, worse than when Musk initially took over. What was previously a trickle of posts of fewer than a dozen per hour is now a torrent propelled by accounts that appear to be automated — some posting several times a minute.”
“It is beyond disturbing that child sexual abuse material is flooding X, but even more egregious is that X is not doing enough to confront it. NBC News reveals that not only is CSAM proliferating from certain accounts, but that hashtags ‘identified in 2023…as hosting child exploitation advertisements are still being used for the same purpose today.’ X must be held to account for perpetuating child sexual abuse and seemingly turning a blind eye to this devastating abuse,” said Haley McNamara, Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Programs, National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
“We’ve pointed to the fact that X allows pornography on its platform as one primary reason CSAM has flourished there. And X’s policy requiring that users mark their ‘consensually-produced’ pornographic content as ‘sensitive,’ fails to prevent image-based sexual abuse from thriving.
“It’s hard to believe that X has any interest or ability to confront CSAM on its platform, especially since it starting to roll out encrypted direct messaging similar to WhatsApp, which has become a haven of CSAM and sextortion. X has already failed to control the abuse happening on its public platform, and no doubt will fail to get a handle on abuse happening on an encrypted site,” McNamara said.
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation Law Center represents two young boys whose child sexual abuse material (child pornography) was posted on X without their knowledge or consent and that X refused to remove in a lawsuit alleging that X profited from their sexual abuse and claimed immunity for hosting it.
NCMEC’s CyberTipline received 20.5 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation in 2024.
About National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE)
Founded in 1962, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is the leading national non-profit 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.
To schedule an interview with NCOSE, please contactpress@ncose.com.
