At Netsweeper, our data shows that child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is a growing problem. We monitor and sort over 150 million new websites that come online each day for our clients, and our data shows that child exploitation sites have quadrupled since the pandemic began. Online predators and human traffickers are taking advantage of children who have become more dependent than ever on the internet to stay connected amid quarantines and closures.  

EU Home Affairs Commissioner, Ylva Johannsson, recently announced that tech firms, who up until now had the option of detecting, reporting, and removing CSAM, will soon be required to do so by law. As reported by the Financial Post, “internet service providers and social media firms had reported 22 million offenses related to child sexual abuse in 2020, up from 17 million in 2019,” says Ylva. 

While teaching children how to navigate the online world safely is imperative and can help prevent CSAM, the digital world is constantly evolving. Predators and traffickers are constantly coming up with new ways to exploit children, and this is where technology like web filtering can help. At Netsweeper, it is our mission to ensure that children are safe online and are not exposed to harmful content or become a victim. Netsweeper has been fighting CSAM for over 20 years, and we work with our partners the IWF and Cybertip.ca to detect and eliminate CSAM.  

Netsweeper’s categorization and management platform is an accurate, comprehensive solution that analyzes and classifies web content and provides a central administration tool for ISPs. Our countrywide filtering solution enables a jurisdictional ring around a country’s virtual network, to centrally block the proliferation of illegal content. Our solution is highly scalable and is trusted by the world’s largest telcos.  

We offer telco regulators, ministries of education, and ministries for internal security a solution that can help countries manage the risks the internet brings to their populace. We have successfully deployed countrywide filtering and have helped one of the top three telecommunication companies in the world carry out an audit of their network traffic (which detected a significant number of users trying to access CSAM websites) and provided the telco with the data needed to identify and prosecute offenders accessing CSAM online.

Contact us to find out how Netsweeper can help your government take a more active role in protecting children online.