Bluesky, a fast-growing social media platform, is stepping up its efforts to combat online child sexual abuse. The platform has partnered with the UK-based Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) to prevent the spread of harmful content. With this collaboration, Bluesky gains access to advanced tools designed to detect and eliminate child sexual abuse material (CSAM) before it spreads.
What’s Happening & Why This Matters
The IWF, which specializes in removing illegal online imagery, confirmed the partnership via email. “This will reduce the risk of users finding illegal imagery online and hopefully keep the platform free from illegal child sexual abuse content,” the foundation stated.
Bluesky’s initiative aligns with its rapid expansion. The decentralized platform now boasts over 30 million users. With more people joining, the platform has seen a predictable rise in harmful content. To address this, Bluesky previously announced a fourfold increase in its moderation team to strengthen content oversight.
Advanced Tools to Detect Harmful Content
Through the partnership, Bluesky will use IWF’s tools, including a comprehensive list of flagged web addresses containing CSAM. The system also employs digital fingerprinting technology, known as “hashes,” to identify and remove abusive material. A hash functions as a unique identifier for an image, allowing tech companies to prevent uploads, downloads, and sharing harmful content without viewing user data.
The IWF elaborated on how this method works: “Once an image has been hashed, it can be recognized quickly, particularly by tech companies who use hash matching to stop people uploading, downloading, viewing, or sharing a hash of CSAM.”
Record Levels of Online Abuse
The partnership comes at a critical time, with child sexual abuse material continuing to spread at alarming rates. The IWF reported a surge in abusive online content, stating that their analysts removed over 291,000 web pages containing CSAM in 2024 alone — an increase of over 5% from the previous year.
Interim IWF CEO Derek Ray-Hill described the situation as a “child sexual abuse crisis,” emphasizing the urgent need for tech companies, governments, and society to collaborate in addressing the issue.
A recent global study revealed that one in 12 children has been exposed to some form of online sexual exploitation or abuse. The findings highlight the importance of strong digital protections to prevent further harm.
How Users Can Help
To strengthen efforts against online exploitation, users can report images and videos of child sexual abuse, including computer-generated content, directly to the IWF. These reports allow authorities to take swift action to remove harmful materials from the web.
TF Summary: What’s Next
Bluesky’s partnership with IWF represents a step toward a safer online environment. By leveraging IWF’s detection tools, the platform aims to minimize CSAM exposure and protect its growing user base. However, the fight against online exploitation is far from over. As harmful content increases, more social media companies must implement robust detection and removal strategies. Public awareness, user reporting, and more substantial moderation efforts will play a key role in curbing the problem.
— Text-to-Speech (TTS) provided by gspeech