Nowhere to Hide is part of the IWF’s In Conversation With series exploring the technological and political issues surrounding the global spread of child sexual abuse material.

This episode looks at how end-to-end encryption goes further than standard encryption, meaning even the service providers themselves can’t see what has been shared between two users.

It means that service providers who deploy end-to-end encryption on their platforms and messaging services are actively disabling their ability to detect child sexual abuse imagery. That is, unless they deploy additional safeguards.

Speaking on the podcast, Dan Sexton, Chief Technical Officer at the IWF, said: “It is very concerning for the IWF. Our mission, our vision, is a safer internet for all, and that the internet is free of child sexual abuse material.

“A big part of how we achieve that mission is providing data on known images and videos to industry so they can detect and block that content, prevent it from being uploaded, saved, shared, distributed and, right now, no one is doing that in end-to-end encrypted messaging services. And that is deeply concerning for us.”

He added: “When a child reports content of themselves to us, we want to be able to say to those children, to those victims, that their content will be found, and it will be blocked across the internet. Right now, we can’t do that with end-to-end encrypted services. That is very concerning for us, and very concerning for those children.”

Mr Sexton, however, said it is possible for safety solutions to be “made compatible” with end-to-end encryption. He said the way in which the technology is being used is the problem, rather than the technology itself.

He said preventing the sharing or upload of child sexual abuse material into end-to-end encrypted spaces can be as unobtrusive as scanning for viruses or malware, and doesn’t require any intrusion into individuals’ privacy.

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