NCOSE and Allies Help EARN IT Act Pass the Senate Judiciary Committee
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is deeply grateful to the Senate Judiciary Committee which unanimously approved a stronger version of the EARN IT Act last Thursday, July 2, in a full committee markup of the bill. Introduced by a bipartisan group of Senators in March 2020, the Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of…
#PornWarning: Utah Blazes Trail with Simple, Effective Label Law
Darby Bailey was tucking her five-year-old nephew into bed in May 2020 when she noticed an iPad he had been using was still on. As she was closing apps on the device, she was shocked to find that, although her nephew could barely read, he had somehow managed to open Safari and land on Pornhub!…
What NCOSE Is Doing About Internet Safety Month 2020
*This blog is the first of three parts in a series for Internet Safety Month. The first part covers current actions NCOSE supports in order to fight for internet safety. The second installment covers progress that still needs to be made on this front. The third part includes a compilation of resources for internet safety.*…
Amazon Hosting “Humor” Books About Child Sexual Abuse Grooming
One Reddit user was horrifyingly on the dot about the potential for a certain book series sold on Amazon — comprised of books with titles like Spank the Monkey Lends a Hand and Put Tony’s Nuts in Your Mouth! — accidentally ending up in a children’s library. While these books are technically marketed for adults, there…
VICTORY! TikTok Updated Its Safety Features. Here’s How They Work.
Just a few weeks after our public announcement about TikTok being named to the 2020 Dirty Dozen List, the social media company announced that they would soon begin rolling out improvements to TikTok’s safety features—including some updates we had been advocating for them to make! Although there are still several safety improvements they need to…
Young boy was groomed for sex trafficking via an online video game
You’ve heard the tragic stories of men, women, and children who have been abused and harmed by the current culture of rampant sexual exploitation. But did you know that in uncertain and confusing times, such as the COVID-19 pandemic gripping our nation and the larger global community, the threat of exploitation looms even larger? We…
Victory! Google Images Improves Search, Decreases Unwanted Porn Exposure
This time last year, Google Images, the site used by most people to find photos on the Internet, exposed children to countless graphic hardcore pornography images in less than 1 second, even for innocent or educational searches. Searches for basic anatomical terms did not yield scientific drawings but instead returned endless pages of images of…
EARN IT Act Can Both Protect Kids and Respect User Privacy, Encryption
The EARN IT Act is designed to foster a safer online experience for children without threatening user privacy or encryption. Children today are at increasing risk of online sexual exploitation. Child sexual abuse material (often referred to as “child pornography”) has exploded over the last two decades, and predators are increasingly flocking to online platforms—often…
VICTORY! Updates to Netflix Parental Controls, Explained
Netflix, the at-home streaming monolith, recently announced some key changes to their parental controls. After the National Center on Sexual Exploitation named Netflix to its 2019 and 2020 Dirty Dozen Lists due to severe issues with its parental controls, in addition to the graphic sexual content being produced by the company, we are excited to…
How to Secure Zoom Calls and Protect from Exploitative “Zoombombing”
As more groups and individuals turn to Zoom for video conferencing during the COVID-19 pandemic, a problematic trend called “Zoombombing” is on the rise. Unfortunately for the many thousands (likely millions) of people who are using Zoom video conferencing for the first time for work, school, and socializing, Zoom isn’t as secure as it should…