Create easily accessible reporting in iMessage for kids and parents to report inappropriate images and harmful situations.
Ensure that only age-appropriate, safe apps are made available to and advertised to children.
Stop the storage and spread of known child sexual abuse images and videos in iCloud.
The following represent real, publicly available child sexual abuse material cases involving Apple products and services.
Sensitive content warning: child sexual abuse
On November 30, 2020, a 28-year-old British man was arrested after a search of his home uncovered 646 child abuse images on his phone and iCloud account, including images showing children in distress and pain. The man ultimately pleaded guilty to three counts of making an indecent photo, or pseudo-photo, of a child and one charge of possessing extreme pornography.
On October 17, 2019, a 32-year-old man was arrested and charged with 13 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor-possession, sexual exploitation of a minor-recording, and sexual exploitation of a minor-distribution. Detectives found numerous explicit images of young children that had been on his cellphone, according to a probable cause statement submitted by police. After issuing a search warrant to Apple, police found multiple messages discussing a 5-year-old boy in a sexual context in his iCloud data. Investigators also collected 2,392 images and videos of sexual exploitation of a minor from the man’s iCloud backups.
On April 11, 2023, a 53-year-old-man was sentenced to over 22 years in federal prison for production of child pornography. He was indicted for two counts of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography after his fiancée found an iPad containing naked images of children, including of her seven-year-old daughter. After obtaining a search warrant, law enforcement searched the iPad and its associated iCloud account, where they found explicit images and videos of that same child filmed by the criminal defendant starting when she was four years old. Â
December 22, 2024
December 13, 2024
September 01, 2023
Heat Initiative exists because the world’s most valuable and powerful tech companies have failed to protect kids from online child sexual exploitation.
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