Plugged In: Project Arachnid – A Tool for Removing Child Sexual Abuse Material
Created by the Canadian Center for Child Protection (C3P), Project Arachnid partners with child abuse hotlines and organizations around the world to find and remove child sexual abuse images. They also collect data on the proliferation of this material, and whether companies are proactive in responding to removal requests. Below is a 1.5 minute video explaining how Project Arachnid works, and then a link to another 2 minute video on how tech companies fall short on child safety.
Click here to watch 2 minute report from the project (only viewable on Youtube link).
The Project Arachnid Report discussed in the video concluded with 8 suggestions to make tech companies more compliant and proactive:
- Enact and impose a duty of care, along with financial penalties for non-compliance or failure to fulfill a required duty of care.
- Impose certain legal/contractual obligations in the terms of service for electronic service providers and their downstream customers.
- Require automated, proactive content detection for platforms with user-generated content.
- Set standards for content that may not be criminal, but remains severely harmful-abusive to minors.
- Mandate human content moderation standards.
- Set requirements for proof of subject or participant consent and uploader verification.
- Establish platform design standards that reduce risk and promote safety.
- Establish standards for user-reporting mechanisms and content removal obligations.