Most companies that host content have a "report" function. You might have once reported a post on facebook, a file link on dropbox, or an image on imgur (to tak

Most companies that host content have a "report" function. You might have once reported a post on facebook, a file link on dropbox, or an image on imgur (to take a few examples) for being bad in some way. If the reason for your report is that the content involves child abuse, then the company is generally accountable for checking it out. This means different things depending on the type of content, the country, and lots of other moving parts, but it is the "safety of the children" argument at work. In practice, often an American content host will let NCMEC know, since they compile and forward on reports to law enforcement. Sometimes content will simply be removed. Again, it depends on the details. This is indeed one of those cases where your privacy, and the rights you have over your property, are impinged upon as a regular person. The courts where I live (Australia) take this quite seriously and are aware that a balance must be struck. I get nervous and uncomfortable when the "think of the children" argument is misused during discussions involving encryption, intellectual property violations, and general freedoms - but I'm aware that on some occasions it is important. A lot of work goes into identifying and where possible rescuing the children involved in this stuff, and preventing more. That is always the focus, in my experience. A final note - the child protection industry is keen to remove the word pornography from the lexicon, and to refer to this type of material as "child abuse" or "child exploitation" material. I think it would be good to reflect that in the headline, because while most everyone knows what child porn means, calling it such mentally associates it with the pornography aspect (the end user) rather than the victim (the child).