PROGRESS! Instagram Takes Step Forward via Improved Reporting and Direct Message Tools
Instagram has made significant improvements to address the sexual exploitation and abuse that occur on its platform. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation has been communicating and working with Instagram for over a year. We are grateful to report regular positive developments from this collaboration following meetings with an international campaign led by Australian Collective…
It’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Steam is Still Selling Sexual Assault Games
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, which is an important awareness campaign highlighting the prevalance of sexual assault in our society. Here at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, not only do we recognize sexual assault and violence as a pervasive problem but we also recognize that pornography and pop culture – whether in the…
As TikTok Fails to Remove Exploiters from the App, Users Are Starting to Revolt
TikTok’s users have increasingly taken it upon themselves to “out” sexual exploiters using the popular video social media app because TikTok has fallen short of ridding the platform from those who prey upon young minors. As Buzzfeed reports: “One of the most popular kinds of videos from TikTok’s users, who are mostly young and female, are…
Meet the 2020 Dirty Dozen List
In 2020, it is intolerable for a mainstream company or entity to facilitate, profit from, or normalize sexual exploitation—and that’s why the Dirty Dozen List exists. This list ensures that their promotion and collusion with sexual assault, sex trafficking, pornography, the eroticization of incest, and more, becomes public knowledge, and equips concerned citizens with information and…
TikTok Safety Tools Are Turning Off After 30 Days and Putting Kids in Danger
With more than 500 million active users worldwide, TikTok is a social media video app for creating and sharing short videos and the app is well known for being popular with minors. TikTok has been placed on the 2020 Dirty Dozen List due to lack of moderation and insufficient safety controls, which put minors at risk of exposure…
1 in 20 Kids Are Being Asked to Undress During Livestreams
TikTok has facilitated a space for sexual grooming by abusers or sex traffickers. These abusers or traffickers utilize TikTok to view minor users and either comment and/or message these minors with sexually explicit content. An advocacy group accurately called TikTok a “hunting ground” for predators to abuse children and Forbes identified TikTok as a “magnet…
Progress Alert! Netflix Takes Step Forward on Parental Controls, Still Needs to Improve Content
After 10,397 emails were sent to Netflix by grassroots supporters through NCOSE’s campaign demanding that Netflix institute better parental controls and content warnings on their platform, they took a step forward! Netflix, the household streaming service with over 150 million users, has had a problem with making itself safe for families of all ages and…
HBO’s Euphoria Claims “Nudes are the Currency of Love” and Promotes Other Sexually Exploitive Themes
HBO is an American premium cable television network that has a long history of consistently producing content which normalizes rape myths, sexual violence, and commercial sexual exploitation through sexually exploitive depictions of sex and sexual violence. This has been displayed over the years through shows like Game of Thrones and The Deuce. After being named…
School Assignment Google Search Pulls Up Pornographic Content
Current college student and mother of 3 boys Stephanie Strawser was working on an essay on slavery for class and did what most students do first: she Googled it. Looking for a synonym for the word ‘bondage’ for her assignment, Stephanie was instead bombarded with pornified imagery and sexual content. The problem was so bad…
Steam Lists Video Game Featuring Rape & Murder of Women
Less than a year after Steam, the largest online video game distributor, changed their policy from prohibiting nudity and sexual violence to an “anything goes” policy that would allow the sale of any game that was not illegal or “straight up trolling”, a new game is under review and has been listed on their store…