Technology Spawned a Child Porn Boom. Can It Now Help Catch Abusers?
By Shira Ovide, The Washington Post — June 24, 2025
In an era defined by smartphones, social media, and encrypted messaging apps, the world has witnessed a disturbing surge in the circulation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Last year alone, more than 60 million photos, videos, and files depicting sexually explicit images of children were reported to be circulating online globally—a staggering and heartbreaking figure.
Now, a new wave of technology aims to fight this scourge by helping law enforcement agencies more rapidly identify and prosecute offenders. However, as experts are quick to point out, while such tech offers a vital tool in combating child exploitation, it also brings significant risks—including potential abuses of privacy and constitutional rights.
The Grim Reality Behind Investigating Child Abuse Material
At the forefront of this technological innovation is Cellebrite, a company well-known for its digital forensic tools used by police agencies worldwide. Cellebrite’s technology allows investigators to extract and analyze data from seized smartphones and computers — an often painstaking and traumatic task when it involves child exploitation crimes.
Traditionally, when law enforcement seizes devices belonging to suspects, investigators must manually sift through immense amounts of data to locate CSAM. This painstaking process can take weeks — time in which victims remain at risk.
Jared Barnhart, Cellebrite’s head of customer advocacy and a former law enforcement officer, highlights the urgency: “In that case, you leave evil out there.” His company’s latest feature, currently being adopted by several law enforcement agencies, aims to dramatically accelerate this process by automatically scanning digital devices for known abusive content.
How the New Scanning Technology Works
Cellebrite’s scanning software taps into a database maintained by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), a nonprofit designated by U.S. law as a clearinghouse for child exploitation material. This extensive database contains roughly 10 million “digital hallmarks” of known child sexual abuse images.
By connecting a seized device to Cellebrite’s system, investigators can quickly flag files—including photos, videos, and other media—that match the database entries. This not only speeds up evidence gathering but also spares law enforcement personnel from the psychological toll of viewing horrific abuse content manually.
John Shehan, who leads NCMEC’s operations in combating child exploitation, explained in a joint interview that the shared goal is to expedite investigations and enable law enforcement to rescue potential victims faster.
Child safety advocates, like Alicia Kozak—a survivor of internet-related child abduction—welcome this advancement. Kozak said, “Law enforcement scanning for vetted child abuse images helps investigators immediately flag material that’s already been identified, build stronger cases, and rescue victims who may still be in danger.”
Balancing Crime-Fighting Potential with Privacy Concerns
Despite the promise of these new tools, legal experts and privacy advocates raise significant concerns.
First, police typically must obtain a warrant or the subject’s consent before searching the contents of digital devices—a protection intended to safeguard constitutional rights against unreasonable searches. However, certain scenarios, such as inspections at U.S. ports of entry, grant border agents more latitude to search devices without warrants. There is concern that technologies like Cellebrite’s could be used extensively in such contexts, potentially cataloguing thousands of travelers’ personal data.
Jumana Musa and Michael Price from the Fourth Amendment Center at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers warn that the expansive scope of device searches enabled by these tools could infringe on Americans’ constitutional protections if not properly regulated or overseen.
Moreover, though companies and law enforcement rely on automated scanning to identify sexual abuse material, false positives occur—even online platforms have mistakenly flagged innocent parents as perpetrators. Albert Fox Cahn, director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, expressed fears that individuals could be inadvertently implicated if, for example, the tool flags a long-forgotten spam email containing illicit content they never knowingly accessed or stored.
Cellebrite insists its scanning tool is opt-in—requiring investigators to actively enable the function—and affirms the responsibility lies with law enforcement to ensure appropriate judicial authorization before conducting such searches.
The Slippery Slope of Expanding Surveillance Powers
Riana Pfefferkorn, a Stanford University researcher specializing in law enforcement technology, cautions that while promising technologies are often introduced to target the “worst of the worst,” their applications tend to broaden over time. “These are justified on the worst of the worst crimes,” she said, “they trickle down to being used in graffiti cases.”
This phenomenon underscores a growing dilemma: the public’s desire for technology to catch heinous criminals, balanced against the risks of government overreach and the erosion of privacy.
A Tool Against Evil—But Not a Panacea
No technology alone can solve the deep-rooted problem of child sexual abuse or halt the demand fueling the spread of child sexual abuse material. However, tools like Cellebrite’s new scanning feature demonstrate how innovation can assist law enforcement in bringing predators to justice and potentially saving victims from harm.
As this technology becomes more prevalent, society must remain vigilant about safeguarding civil liberties and ensuring robust oversight. The fight against child exploitation is urgent, but it must never come at the cost of the fundamental rights that protect us all.
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