Microsoft Joins NCOSE’s Annual Dirty Dozen List as AI Tools Enable Sexual Exploitation

Microsoft Joins NCOSE’s Annual Dirty Dozen List as AI Tools Enable Sexual Exploitation

By Movieguide® Contributor

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) recently released its 2023 ‘Dirty Dozen’ list.

“The Dirty Dozen List is an annual campaign calling out twelve mainstream entities for facilitating or profiting from sexual abuse and exploitation,” the NCOSE explained.

Additionally, the Dirty Dozen List is an activism tool enabling large-scale change. The list provides tangible steps that can be taken to hold companies accountable such as emailing legislators, signing petitions to corporate executives, and pre-crafted social media messages.

The NCOSE recently published a report celebrating the changes that have come from the Dirty Dozen List such as Google blurring sexually explicit images on search results, TikTok disabling Direct Messages for users younger than 16, Comcast improving parental controls, and United Airlines combatting in-flight pornography usage.

This year’s Dirty Dozen includes companies repeated from last year, Discord, Kik, OnlyFans, Reddit, and Twitter.

The new additions this year mainly center around companies that enable child sexual abuse and exploitation, as well as AI tools that enable deepfakes and AI-generated porn.

Here are the 12 companies on 2023’s Dirty Dozen List:

Apple App Store:

“Deceptive to the core: Apple App Store age ratings and descriptions mislead parents about the content, risks, and dangers to children on available apps. When caregivers aren’t informed, kids pay the price.”

Discord:

“Discord is a Haven for sexual exploiters: This messaging platform is popular with predators who want to groom children and find and trade child sexual abuse materials, as well as adult image-based sexual abuse.”

eBay:

“’Whatever it is, you can get it on eBay.’ Unfortunately, that includes childlike sex abuse dolls and spycams advertised specifically for filming women without their consent.”

Instagram:

“Instagram’s slogan is ‘Capture and Share the World’s Moments’ – for countless children and adults that includes their worst moments. Grooming, child sexual abuse materials, sex trafficking, and many other harms continue to fester on Instagram.”

Kik:

“Kik’s crawling with criminals. This anonymous messaging app is a ‘predator’s paradise’ for grooming kids and sharing images of their abuse, in addition to hardcore porn and prostitution ads.”

Microsoft’s GitHub:

“GitHub is the go-to place to create sexually exploitative technology. Deepfakes, ‘nudify’ apps, and AI-generated pornography originate on this collaborative platform for software development.”

OnlyFans:

“OnlyFans: Empowerment or Exploitations? OnlyFans promotes itself as giving porn performers power, but in reality it empowers sex traffickers, child exploiters, and ‘revenge porn’ posters.”

Reddit:

“It takes less than 5 seconds to find sexual exploitation on Reddit. This “front page of the Internet” is a hub of child sexual abuse materials, sex trafficking, and image-based sexual abuse.”

Roblox:

“Roblox isn’t all fun and games. Among the blocks and buildings, kids may be exposed to predators and inappropriate content.”

Snapchat:

“Is Snapchat Dangerous by design? Year after year, Snapchat is named a top spot for sexortation, sexual interactions between minors and adults, and pornography exposure. No more excuses!”

Spotify:

“Porn is too easy to spot on Spotify – and the parential controls are tone deaf. Insist this popular streaming platform fix its filters to remove sexually explicit images and prevent predators from accessing kids.”

Twitter:

“Twitter was asked to take [child sexual abuse material] down and Twitter said ‘we’ve looked at it and we’re not taking it down.’ – Judge at the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.”