Searching for a child in a private world.

[Music]

[Applause]

there are some things you can’t unsee

i’ve worked in the field of child sexual

abuse for eight years

as part of the thorn team we build

technology to defend kids from sexual

abuse

so i’ve made personal decisions about

what i know

and what i sometimes have to see and i

work alongside

incredibly brave officers who have to

see the

unimaginable every day as they search

for these kids

i don’t need you to ever see it but i do

need you to know about it

and i’m going to share something with

you today that i’m carrying and i’m

going to give it to you

so that we carry it together for them

the kids who are very much a part of our

lives but are not part of this

conversation

what i’m about to share with you is hard

to hear

a few months ago law enforcement

contacted us about a case they were

working

it’s never a good sign when they reach

out to us directly

because it usually means that the abuse

is quite severe

and that was true in this instance

a father is raping his daughter

and putting the images and videos online

he is taking precautions to not get

caught

their one clue is they think it may be

in the u.s

his daughter looks to be about two or

three years old

for the purposes of our conversation

today

i think it’s important we give her a

name we’ll call her marie

marie is a human being

i have seen marie’s face it’s something

i will never

unsee right now

on march 21 2021

if every major tech platform ran marie’s

face

against their data the chances are they

would probably find her

in a non-abuse photo and that would end

this nightmare for marie but here’s why

this is such a challenging

conversation there are reasons

privacy reasons legal reasons even some

technical

reasons for why we can’t do that today

and intellectually i accept those

reasons

but it just doesn’t feel right

it doesn’t feel right because we as

adults have made certain

decisions while she as a child has

continued to be abused

when i meet marie in the future and she

sits across from me

and says did you do everything you could

to help me to find me

what would i say

we must fiercely guard our right to

privacy

it is incredibly important but we must

also fiercely guard one of our greatest

resources

our children we often say

you can be or you can have all these

three things

you can want more privacy online you can

want to protect children online

and you can use technology you don’t

have to choose i am here today to share

with you the idea

that privacy is a continuum

it’s not an all or nothing proposition

it’s not an on or off switch and if we

are wanting to create a world where we

have more privacy online

and protect kids we’re going to have to

strike that balance

and we’re going to have to work hard to

do it

i am sharing this with you today because

we are going to signal to you

the users of these technologies every

day

that you’re going to have to make

decisions along this continuum

as part of this process

people often say to us isn’t it obvious

that people can’t share child

pornography online and we call child

pornography

child sexual abuse material because that

is what it

actually is is the evidence or

documentation of a child’s abuse

and the answer right now is currently

yes

right now most companies can detect

child sexual abuse content

but as we move to more private

environments without the right technical

solutions

we may lose sight of it

how do we get here how has there been

such a strong swing towards privacy or

why has that happened

people are upset our privacy has been

violated and we’ve seen that play out in

so many ways in our lives over the last

few years

so in response to that companies are

making a major course correction

and they are trying to provide you the

user with more private environments

more secure environments more trusted

environments now

and that generally is a good thing it’s

a great thing

and it can be a great thing for kids too

if it’s doing things like

protecting their data not disclosing

their geolocation

etc however what’s not

often talked about in the privacy

conversation

is who loses out who isn’t protected

as in those private environments and i’m

going to use encryption

as an example encryption will absolutely

protect activists organizing against

oppressive regimes

and allow them to connect and organize

encryption will also protect someone

sharing marie’s abuse video with someone

else and encouraging others to abuse

children in the same way and it will

make it harder to find those kids

both realities are true

we have to acknowledge that instead of

trying

to only highlight one or the other

we’re gonna have to be smarter than that

and we’re gonna have to find that

balance where we can protect

both that’s the goal

what’s interesting about this

conversation is that defining children’s

rights

often lags behind that of adults

and you see this in in the history

a friend of mine who’s a human rights

lawyer said to me a few years ago

privacy is not always inherently good

for children

and i thought about this more children

are often abused in private spaces

thinking back on the days where child

abuse was something that happened in the

home that was for the family to figure

out and not discussed out in public

in fact it wasn’t until the 1960s here

in the us

when dr henry kent published a medical

paper called

the battered child which included x-rays

that demonstrated what physical child

abuse

looked like on child’s bodies that we

started to

use the term child abuse in conversation

before that it was thought of as

uncommon and not a regular

issue mandatory reporting laws

here in the united states so when

doctors teachers

caregivers social workers are are

asked to and have to report suspected

child abuse

didn’t come into place until the late

1970s here in the u.s

this is a relatively new field of

defining

child children’s rights separate of

their parents

and decades later as we’ve made progress

on this front

we’re going to have to do it all over

again in defining what children’s rights

are

in the online world and the really scary

thing is we’re really far behind

2020 taught and showed us so many things

but one of the things that made clear is

that children are living

on the internet we saw a 97

increase in online enticement reports

last year to the national center for

missing and exploited children

online enticement is when an adult will

befriend a child

and either groom them to perform a

sexual act

to extort them for a naked photo or even

to groom them to meet up in person to

abuse them

so we saw an uptick in these reports

last year

at the same time because children

weren’t out in the physical world

mandatory reports went down because kids

weren’t seeing doctors teachers social

workers coaches

other parents who might be able to

report suspected child abuse

so as kids became more isolated in the

physical world

they also became less protected in the

online world

that’s a pretty dangerous combination

so how are we going to do this how are

we going to define

children’s rights and how we’re going to

hold them

equal to everyone’s rights online and

strike that balance between

privacy and child protection well first

we’re going to need innovation

technology is a major character in this

story

and again i’ll use encryption as an

example

right now most companies can and have

been

successfully detecting child sexual

abuse content

on their platforms because they are not

encrypted

what’s happening now is as companies

move towards more private environments

we’re concerned that we might lose sight

of that abuse

you’ll actually see this play out in

conversation between abusers

where they’ll say don’t go to x platform

and try and groom a child there it’s not

secure

you will be caught isn’t that what we

want

don’t we want the internet to be a

hostile

environment for this kind of abuse so as

more environments move towards

encryption

companies will no longer be able to

detect child sexual abuse material

and this is where we’re really concerned

an example of this is facebook

they have been a super reporter for

years

to their credit they’ve looked for it

they’ve found it and they’ve reported it

they had over 20 million reports to the

national center for missing exploited

children last year

when facebook encrypts messenger at the

end of this year

close to 70 or what they estimate to be

around 70

of those reports will no longer be able

to be seen

that’s scary it’s also really important

to mention

that there are companies who’ve been

encrypted who have never searched for

this content

so how are we going to solve this what

is the solution

well it’s a technical problem it’s a

policy problem

it’s really just a good old-fashioned

problem that needs smart people to come

together

and figure out the answer and the good

news is there are technologists

and policy makers all over the world who

want to solve for this

if we are about to have a hotel orbit

around the moon in a few years time

we created five vaccines and under a

year to flight to fight a global

pandemic

we can absolutely figure out a way to

surgically detect child sexual abuse

content

in encrypted environments or in private

environments

the answer is not don’t encrypt

the answer is we’re going to have to

work harder to make that private

environment

safe for everyone

the second thing we’re going to need is

you you listening

where do you fall into all this where do

you come into play

well as i mentioned before we all want

more privacy online and we

saw this play out in market research

that we did last year where we

asked a swath of americans do you want

more privacy on the internet

and the vast majority said yes what was

really interesting is

as you dive into how that actually

plays out in real life there’s a

disconnect between

wanting privacy and realizing what that

means so we would also ask people

about encryption only 10 percent

responded saying they knew a lot about

encryption

24 with very little or somewhat

this decision of how you gain more

privacy on these

on this platforms has been made for you

without a full disclosure about what the

tradeoffs are

when you click a box to say yes i want

more privacy on this platform

you’re not thinking i’m making it harder

to find kids like marie

you’re thinking about protecting you and

your family

so until we’re open and honest about

the full spectrum of trade-offs that

happen here

we’re not going to find a solution

that’s balanced because i guarantee you

the solution is not sitting at one of

the either ends of this continuum

there’s a final point to make today

which is really important

which is that we believe in privacy for

all

including the children who are in the

images and videos

we must acknowledge that every time

marie’s

image or video is shared her privacy

is being violated by not

acknowledging that the privacy of the

children in these images and photos is

happening now

we are robbing them of their privacy as

a future adult

we know that these images and videos

will never

go away but we have to make the promise

to them that we will do

everything in our power that they not

see the light of day

they go on to haunt these kids for the

rest of their lives

trying to remove them and acknowledging

that that is a breach in their privacy

is the least we can do

so when i think back to if i were to

meet marie

in the future and she was to say

did you do everything you could

right now i would have to say no

and i’d say no because we haven’t done

the work

to figure out those balance solutions

it’s hard and it’s never been done

before

but we’re gonna have to do it

for me personally if i was using an

encrypted platform

i would be okay knowing that they’re

looking for child sexual abuse in that

environment

but i recognize that’s a controversial

thing for me to say

and i respect you if you disagree with

that or if that’s not true for you

but we have to have these open and

honest conversations if we’re going to

figure this out

because there is absolutely a world

where we can protect our privacy online

and we can find marie faster we just

have to build it

thank you

you