The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has reported a massive increase in child pornography online.
The organization reports finding a 35 percent increase in suspected cases from 2020 to 2021.
“The number of reports went up in categories such as CSAM (possession, manufacture and distribution), child sex tourism, child sex trafficking, child sexual molestation, misleading domain name, online enticement of children for sexual acts and unsolicited obscene material sent to a child,” The Hill reports. “NCMEC sent reports to the police and was able to alert law enforcement to 4,260 potential new victims in 2021.”
In 2021, there were 29.3 million reports of suspected child sexual abuse online, the most ever in a single year.
The Intelligencer reports, “there were also 44,155 reports of suspected online enticement of children for sexual acts, 16,032 reports of suspected child sex trafficking and 12,458 reports of suspected child sexual molestation in 2021, according to NCMEC data, with each category seeing an increase over 2020.”
The report added that “NCMEC data shows that the number of videos of child sexual abuse surpassed still images in 2021, and the nonprofit wrote it expects reports of videos will continue to rise.”
“These reports concern the sexual exploitation of children around the globe. We share this data to continue building awareness of the insidious nature of child sexual exploitation occurring online,” Michelle DeLaune, NCMEC senior vice president and COO, said in a statement.
Reports of suspected child sexual exploitation can be sent to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at CyberTipline.org or by calling NCMEC at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).