The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) and Clearview AI conducted an operation in Ecuador this past spring that resulted in locating and positively identifying 110 previously unknown child sexual abuse victims. The operation, held in Ecuador and hosted by ICMEC, used Clearview AI’s facial recognition technology as a main resource. Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, and the Dominican Republic were among the countries that worked together on hundreds of cold cases involving previously unknown victims of online child sexual exploitation and abuse.
In 2023, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) CyberTipline received a staggering 36.2 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation. To counter that, a chilling new interactive video, “No Escape Room,” uses dozens of real-life tipline scenarios to immerse parents and caregivers into a child’s online world, often fraught with peril. Throughout the experience, users are prompted to engage in a conversation with someone they think is another teenager. The friendly, flirtatious chat soon involves requests for nude or sexually explicit photos, eventually trapping the child in a blackmail scenario. The video’s immersive viewpoint shows parents firsthand how children are targeted by predators and struggle to navigate dangerous circumstances. At the end of the experience, users are directed to NCMEC’s resources on sextortion.