Digital technologies are entwined with our lives and children have the potential to be exposed at an early age. The internet of things has become a perilous hunting ground for predators preying on our children. To catch these predators, law enforcement must be equipped with cutting-edge technology. Since 2017, Cellebrite has supported NCMEC’s mission to make sure that every child has a safe childhood. Cellebrite’s solutions have also been used by law enforcement investigative teams, including forensic examiners and analysts in the lab, investigators and first responders in the field, prosecutors building strong defensible cases and agency management optimizing investigative resources.

NCMEC’s impact on keeping children safe is remarkable. In 2022, NCMEC assisted law enforcement, families and child welfare advocates with 27,644 missing children cases, successfully resolving 88% of those cases. According to their annual report, the children are highly vulnerable and face many risks including homelessness, gang involvement and child sex trafficking.

The disturbing fact is that child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) is often circulated and shared online repeatedly. CSAM of a single child victim can be circulated for years after the first initial abuse occurred. In 2022, over 99.5% of reports received by NCMEC’s CyberTipline involved suspected CSAM.

Child exploitation forensic investigations often involve terabytes of digital material, including images and videos. In one app-based end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) network of child sexual exploitation, law enforcement collected more than two million chat records and identified over 250,000 individual accounts. The network facilitated the exchange of over 50,000 videos and 2,000 images.

Cellebrite provides analysts and investigators with advanced digital intelligence solutions that utilize artificial intelligence and machine-learning algorithms, allowing law enforcement to efficiently handle the growing amount of digital evidence. Robust hash matching technology speeds up identification of images and videos, automatically recognizing future versions of reported materials. Of the 88.3 million files submitted to NCMEC, only 38% of pictures and 22% of videos were unique. According to a study in Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, by reducing redundancy, analysts can focus on first-generation imagery, identify more abuse victims and expedite rescues – while avoiding secondary trauma due to their exposure to disturbing images.

The surge in child sexual exploitation abuse online – and new methods and mediums used to conduct it – emphasizes the dire need for a swift and innovative response

The partnership between Cellebrite and NCMEC underscores Cellebrite’s commitment to fully support NCMEC’s mission in leveraging its digital forensics solutions to help is this fight to protect our most vulnerable. Together, the organizations combat the evolving challenges posed by online child exploitation.

Turning the tide on current abuse trends will only be possible with increased prioritization and commitment, enabled by innovative digital intelligence solutions and strategies. Cellebrite and NCMEC are committed to combat the evolving challenges posed by online child exploitation.

Share this post