MAP Forum

A new investigation reveals that child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is being openly marketed and sold on mainstream social media platforms. Sometimes, AI systems inadvertently help the predators.

The Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change (CABC) released a disturbing report, Mapping Child Predation Online, exposing that the rampant spread of child pornographic material is easily found, distributed, and even traded for money across popular social media and messaging platforms in South Africa.

The report is a follow-up to a previous study on The State of Child Predation in South Africa, which first warned of the growing scale of online child abuse. CABC found that the sexualisation of minor children is rife on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter); however, counter-narratives existed in the conversation.