Wickr has far fewer users than those apps but self-reported only 15 instances of child sexual abuse imagery, despite experts and law enforcement saying there's clear use of the app by people trading such material online.
Experts said a high level of reporting was a positive thing because it signaled that a company was working proactively to detect child exploitation material on its platform. Meta's reports to the center numbered in the millions in 2021: Facebook made 22,118,952 reports, Instagram made 3,393,654 reports, and WhatsApp made 1,372,696 reports. law requires that electronic communication service providers report known or discovered child sexual abuse material to NCMEC. Other apps including Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram - all owned by Meta - use algorithmic detection methods to constantly scan unencrypted text and media uploaded to their platforms, such as content on a user's profile, to find signs of child sexual abuse imagery. "Wickr needs to do more in regards to identifying and taking steps to prevent child sexual abuse material being traded on their platform," said John Shehan, vice president of NCMEC. No child sexual abuse imagery was viewed in the course of reporting this article. On social media platforms such as Reddit, Tumblr and Twitter, NBC News found dozens of forums, accounts and blogs where hundreds of posts have been made soliciting minors, those who have access to them, or those interested in trading child sexual abuse material alongside Wickr screen names. Posts linking Wickr and child sexual abuse material are also littered across the internet. They point to direct knowledge of child exploitation investigations and sting operations, interviews with victims and perpetrators of abuse, and interactions with individuals soliciting child sexual abuse material as evidence that Wickr is being used by many people who exploit children. These court cases only represent a small fraction of the problem, according to two law enforcement officers involved in investigating child exploitation cases, two experts studying child exploitation and two people who have seen firsthand how individuals frequently use Wickr and other platforms for criminal transactions on the dark web. Over 25 percent of the prosecutions stemmed from undercover operations conducted by law enforcement on Wickr and other tech platforms. Almost none of the criminal complaints reviewed note cooperation from Wickr itself at the time of filing, aside from limited instances where Wickr was legally compelled to provide information via a search warrant.
Nearly every prosecution reviewed has resulted in a conviction aside from those still being adjudicated. NBC News reviewed court documents from 72 state and federal child sexual abuse or child pornography prosecutions where the defendant allegedly used Wickr (as it's commonly known) from the last five years in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, using a combination of private and public legal and news databases and search engines.
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