OpenAI sent 80 times as many child exploitation incident reports to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children during the first half of 2025 as it did during a similar time period in 2024, according to a recent update from the company. The NCMEC’s CyberTipline is a Congressionally authorized clearinghouse for reporting child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and other forms of child exploitation.
Companies are required by law to report apparent child exploitation to the CyberTipline. When a company sends a report, NCMEC reviews it and then forwards it to the appropriate law enforcement agency for investigation.
I’m unclear how this is a misleading headline. There were more reports; that’s all it says. The headline doesn’t give any indication or even hint of why, just that volume = greater.
My guess before reading anything was that it was getting better at identifying and reporting cases and/or as use of their tools has increased that there is more to report, not that suddenly there was more CSAM occurring. Did you assume something different?
Either way, I’m glad to hear the reports are increasing. Makes it more likely the culprits will be identified.