Snapchat Improves Child Safety After Landing on NCOSE’s Dirty Dozen List
By Movieguide® Contributor
Snapchat has taken multiple steps to improve child safety on its platform, unlike other names on the National Center on Sexual Exploitation’s (NCOSE) 2023 Dirty Dozen List.
“Snapchat heard our concerns about sexual exploitation on its platform and has implemented significant changes after being placed on our 2023 Dirty Dozen List,” said Lina Nealon, NCOSE VP and Director of Corporate Advocacy. “Since Snapchat has made a public commitment to continued improvements around child safety, we are moving Snapchat to our ‘Watch List.’”
Movieguide® previously reported:
“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 Baptist Record noted that the list includes “documented examples directly captured from the tech sites and corroborating information supporting the accusations of sexual exploitation, with avenues for public advocacy for change.”
In response to NCOSE’s accusations, Snapchat made changes in three “crucial” ways: by “protecting teens from being contacted by people they may not know in real life,” “restricting teens from viewing sexually suggestive and explicit content on Snapchat” and providing “resources and education about sexual abuse and exploitation.”
“This is a great step forward, but there’s still more to be done. We’re encouraged by this progress and will continue to monitor its efforts to improve,” NCOSE wrote on Instagram.
Other organizations still on the list include:
- Apple App Store
- eBay
- Kik
- Microsoft’s GitHub
- Only Fans
- Roblox
- Spotify
- Discord
Discord and Reddit also made improvements but remain on the list.
Haley McNamara, NCOSE VP of Strategy and Communications, said, “Reddit has taken a significant step to course-correct its user safety policies to improve child safety, corresponding to multiple concerns our organization raised…”
“Currently, we are skeptical that these child safety policies are being well enforced, as NCOSE researchers were still able to find numerous likely indicators of child sexualization and child sexual abuse material among the top NSFW subreddits.” McNamara said.
Instagram especially raises the alarm for NCOSE. Despite the fact that “Courtney’s House, Collective Shout, Defend Dignity, and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation have jointly expressed a multitude of concerns regarding grooming, child sexual abuse materials, sex trafficking and other harms to Instagram,” the social media site did not make any effective improvements.
Movieguide® previously reported:
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation recently removed Google’s Chromebook from their “Dirty Dozen List” after the company announced changes to help protect children from sexual exploitation while using its devices.
The NCOSE’s lists feature tech companies that alleged profit from the sexual exploitation of children and its users.
“Given the safety measures that have been implemented as of today, we have removed Google Chromebook from our 2021 Dirty Dozen List,” Lina Nealon, director of corporate and strategic initiatives for NCOSE, said. “The improvements were long sought-after by NCOSE and its allies and ultimately will limit the amount of exposure to harmful content and potential predators through school-issued Chromebooks.”
