How online predators use privacy apps. New podcast episode from the IWF

In Conversation with Tegan Insoll, Head of Research at Suojellaan Lapsia, and Dan Sexton, Chief Technology Officer at the IWF.

New research shows online offenders are choosing end-to-end encrypted messaging apps to contact children and to spread child sexual abuse material amid renewed calls for Meta to rethink its planned roll out of end-to-end encryption on Facebook Messenger.

A new podcast from the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) focuses on new research from Finnish child protection agency Suojellaan Lapsia which shows how offenders operate and the methods they use.

Preliminary findings from Suojellaan Lapsia’s ReDirection Project show how end-to-end encrypted apps are deliberately chosen by people looking to contact children or share and find child sexual abuse imagery because of a perceived reduced risk of detection or prosecution.

The report, which will be published in full on February 20, has sparked renewed calls for Facebook owner Meta to reconsider its decision to roll out end-to-end encryption on Messenger, one of the world’s most used private messaging services.

While Meta says the move will make Messenger more secure, the IWF and others have been critical, saying introducing end-to-end encryption without also bringing in new child protection measures risks disabling many safety and detection features which have been successfully deployed on the platform.

Speaking on the podcast, Tegan Insoll, Head of Research at Suojellaan Lapsia, said end-to-end encryption could make it harder to prevent the spread of child sexual abuse imagery online, and more difficult to detect offenders.

Ms Insoll said: “Our research already is showing that a quarter of the offenders that we have surveyed on the dark web are already using messaging apps and, mostly, end-to-end encrypted messaging apps to contact children. And nearly a third are also using messaging apps to search for and view child sexual abuse material.”

She added: “It gives that sense of safety and security for offenders which could potentially lead to further offending as they feel comfortable that they are not being detected and they feel safe in their ability to continue these crimes without prosecution.”

Dan Sexton, Chief Technology Officer at the IWF, warned that rolling out end-to-end encryption without new safety features would see the open web beginning to look more like the dark web, with perpetrators feeling emboldened to "brazenly" commit offences.

Mr Sexton said: “We look at the dark web, which is layers of encryption and anonymity, and what we are seeing on the dark web is, and I’m sure the survey results will reflect this, the people that are on there talk pretty openly about things. They are brazenly doing horrible, illegal things that are hurting children, and they are doing it where anyone can see it because they are so enabled by these layers of anonymity and encryption that they can do that.

“As we start to add things like end-to-end encryption to messaging services these open, normal, regulated commercial platforms start to look more and more like the dark web, and I think that is a real concern for all of us. I don’t think that is a future that we want for the internet.”

The full ReDirection Project report will be published on February 20 here: https://www.suojellaanlapsia.fi/en

More resources to help children stay safe online can be found at:

My Friend Too: https://myfriendtoo.com/

Or talk.iwf.org.uk

Listen to the full podcast episode at iwf.org.uk/inconversation.