Facebook has announced new tools and measures to prevent content that exploits children on its platform. The social media giant explains that the company is developing targeted solutions, including new tools and policies to reduce the sharing of such content. These include a pop-up alert for terms on Facebook-owned apps associated with child exploitation, while the other includes legal consequences for sharing harmful content in the form of videos and memes. It also highlights that the platform-guidelines have been updated to clarify the actions company will take against Facebook or Instagram accounts dedicated to sharing images of children posted along with captions, hashtags or comments containing innuendo or inappropriate signs of affection.

Antigone Davis, Facebook Global Head of Safety says that the social media company has also been working with the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to understand the content related to minors that people share and consume, to form relevant guidelines and rules. “We found that more than 90% of this content was the same as or visually similar to previously reported content. And copies of just six videos were responsible for more than half of the child-exploitative content we reported in that time period,” Davis said in a blog post.