‘The Dirty Dozen List’ – Corporations Enable and Profit from Sexual Exploitation

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) revealed its annual “The Dirty Dozen List,” naming “twelve mainstream entities for facilitating, enabling, and even profiting from sexual abuse and exploitation.”

NCOSE first started the list in 2013. This year’s list of “major contributors to sexual exploitation” consists of companies like Google, Reddit, Meta (formerly Facebook), Etsy, Discord and Twitter.

The others listed are Etsy, Netflix, Kanakuk Kamps, Kik, OnlyFans, Verisign and Twitter. The companies earn revenue from and enable sexual exploitation in a variety of ways.

For example, NCOSE said that Google and its parent company Alphabet “held the leading market share (92%) of the global search engine market” as of February 2022, through its Google Search tool.

“Unfortunately, Google Search facilitates access to real and depicted content of sexual abuse, including graphic videos of sex trafficking, child sexual abuse, and nonconsensually recorded/shared content, as well as illegal and socially damaging-themed content,” NCOSE stated.

Although Google has taken some steps to combat sexual exploitation, it “drives people to pornography sites when they search for themes of rape, racism, incest, sexual abuse of minors, and other illegally-themed or socially damaging-themed pornography.”

Discord describes itself as “a free voice, video, and text chat app that’s used by tens of millions of people ages 13+ to talk and hang out with their communities and friends.” The company says it has a “commitment to a safe and trusted experience.”

But the app, with 150 million users in 2021, has some major issues. These include problems with age verification, not monitoring its servers, and “an environment that fosters sexual exploitation and abuse on a massive scale.”

NCOSE explained the scope of Discord’s problem:

Pornography trading is popular on the platform, as users can share links and images of themselves and others. Entire servers on Discord are dedicated to users finding and sharing nonconsensual pornographic images of girls and women – material sometimes referred to as “revenge porn” or image-based sexual abuse. Discord made international news in 2020 when one server revealed that over 140,000 images of women and minors had been widely shared and distributed.

Here are some of the other groups NCOSE included in its list:

Etsy – Global marketplaceEtsy is in the business of selling pornographic merchandise, misogynistic and dehumanizing apparel, and sex dolls – including ones resembling children and young teens. … Etsy has an ethical obligation to stop profiting from and normalizing child sex abuse and exploitation.

Kik – Kik boasts that a third of American teens use the free messaging app to chat with friends and strangers alike. It’s also among the most dangerous online spaces for children. Law enforcement has been warning for years that Kik is a stomping ground for predators – yet Kik has not prioritized keeping kids safe.

Meta – Meta owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp: all of which are consistently under fire as primary places for grooming, sextortion, child sexual abuse materials, sex trafficking, and a host of other crimes. … Meta is prioritizing new projects like the metaverse and pursuing sweeping encryption despite international law enforcement warnings about the lack of sufficient provisions for child online safety.

Netflix – Netflix is a staple of at-home entertainment, with over 200 million subscribers streaming their content worldwide. Yet mixed in with the fun and entertainment is rampant sexual objectification and glamorization of abuse. Sociologists have identified a marked increase in graphic sex scenes and gratuitous nudity permeating Netflix shows. Further, Netflix continues a trend of normalizing the sexualization of children while also whitewashing the violence and exploitation in prostitution.

For each company, NCOSE lists specific examples, such as “glorifying or graphically depicting sexual violence” (Netflix); “normalizing and glamorizing the commercial sex industry” (OnlyFans); “child sexual abuse roleplay” (Etsy); and facilitating “payments for pornography sites, online prostitution sites, and legal brothels” (Visa).

The group also explains how it’s asked each business to reform. For each company, NCOSE also offers a way to take action by emailing them about their appalling support of abuse, prostitution, pornography and sexual exploitation.

In addition to corporate advocacy through campaigns like The Dirty Dozen List, NCOSE has a law center that files suits on behalf of victims of sexual exploitation; runs a research institute that examines issues like pornography addiction, the public health hazards of pornography and the neurological impacts of sexual trauma; and walks alongside survivors of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.

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