In nearly all instances, the software can also identify the country where the material is being hosted, meaning imagery in the Netherlands, for example, can be flagged by a hotline in Canada and get routed by Inhope to the Dutch hotline for further action.
The technology advances have helped put some sexual predators on the run, but they have also overwhelmed some of the hotlines, which are too small or ill equipped to handle the increased work. The changes have created tensions between some of the organizations.
The hotline in the Netherlands has been particularly hard-hit because that country is a global hot spot for companies that host the illegal imagery. Last year, Europe eclipsed the United States as the top hosting location for child sexual abuse material on the open web, according to data collected by Inhope, and the Netherlands led Europe.
The Dutch hotline, Meldpunt Kinderporno, has struggled to keep up, said Arda Gerkens, the group’s executive director, who is also a member of the Dutch parliament.
“They clog us with every image that they find,” she said of the Inhope referrals. “We hardly have time to breathe.”
Meldpunt Kinderporno, with a small annual budget of less than 1 million euros, this month deployed long-awaited software that helps automate tasks that were done manually for each report of abuse imagery. Ms. Gerkens said she was hopeful that the software, in combination with other efforts — including legislation being written to push companies in the Netherlands to scan for illegal content themselves — will help the hotline return to steadier footing.
“Every day I feel more and more pressure to get this done yesterday,” Ms. Gerkens wrote in an email.
The hotline in the United States, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, is in a category of its own because of the enormous role American tech companies play in identifying and reporting illegal imagery found on their platforms. Last year alone, the American center received reports of more than 45 million illegal images from tech companies.