Leading technology giants, including Meta, the parent company of Facebook, and Google, have announced their collaboration in a new initiative called Lantern, aimed at combating online child exploitation and abuse.
This concerted effort comes as a response to the pressing concern of child victimization in the digital realm, with tech firms striving to demonstrate their commitment to safeguarding children and adolescents.
The Lantern Program
Under the Lantern program, major tech companies will exchange indicators of activity that contravene their policies on child exploitation. This cooperative endeavor is designed to facilitate swift identification, removal, and reporting of inappropriate content across various platforms.
In a statement addressing the initiative, Meta emphasized the paramount importance of shielding children in the digital sphere.
Meta claims that its measures have resulted in the identification and reporting of a greater volume of child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) compared to any other service provider.
Meta notes that while strides have been made in leveraging technology, such as Microsoft's PhotoDNA and Meta's PDQ, to curtail the dissemination of child sexual abuse material, the evolving tactics of predators need additional measures.
To address this challenge, Meta collaborated with the Tech Coalition to establish Lantern. This platform empowers technology firms to share diverse indicators related to accounts and behaviors that run afoul of their child safety protocols. Participating entities can utilize this intelligence to conduct in-depth investigations within their own domains.
Meta played a pivotal role in the formation of Lantern, furnishing the Tech Coalition with the requisite technical infrastructure. Meta assumes responsibility for the management and oversight of the technology in tandem with the Tech Coalition, ensuring user-friendly accessibility and providing partners with the necessary resources to track potential predators on their respective platforms.
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Pilot Phase
During the pilot phase of the Lantern program, Meta recounts the time when MEGA, a partner of Lantern, furnished Meta with URLs that had previously been taken down for breaching their child safety protocols.
Meta's specialized team focused on child safety utilized this information to conduct a thorough examination of potentially violative activities linked to these URLs on their platforms.
As a result, over 10,000 Facebook Profiles, Pages, and Instagram accounts in violation were removed. In accordance with legal obligations, Meta also reported these infringing profiles, pages, and accounts to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).
Additionally, Meta shared the findings of the investigation with Lantern, providing fellow participating companies with valuable insights to undertake their own inquiries.
"Protecting children online is one of the most important challenges facing the technology industry today. At Meta, we want young people to have safe, positive experiences online and we've spent a decade developing tools and policies designed to protect them," Meta said in an official statement.
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