"In the United States, Apple made 160 reports in 2021 to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a federally designated clearinghouse for abusive material. Google made 875,783 reports, while Facebook made 22 million."

Child advocacy group, the Heat Initiative, is launching a $2 million campaign urging Apple to improve its policing of child sex abuse materials on iCloud. In 2021, Apple faced backlash over its plan to scan iPhones for child sex abuse material, which it later abandoned due to privacy concerns. Now, the Heat Initiative and investors are calling on Apple to detect, report, and remove these materials from iCloud. They also want Apple to publicly report the number of abusive images it detects. Apple has defended its decision not to scan iCloud, citing potential privacy risks. The company has introduced safety features for child accounts to prevent the creation of abusive content. While Apple has won some praise for its efforts, critics argue that more can be done to prevent child sex abuse images from being shared in the cloud. Governments worldwide are pressuring Apple to take action on this issue. The Heat Initiative’s campaign coincides with Apple’s annual iPhone unveiling on September 12.