NCMEC received 21.3M child exploitation reports in 2025 containing 61.8M files; perceptual hashing detects illegal images via fingerprints without viewing content, protecting privacy while identifying abuse at internet scale.

How Do You Find an Illegal Image Without Looking at It?

I 61.8 Million Files. One Year. Child Sexual Abuse Material — known as CSAM — is any image or video depicting the sexual abuse or exploitation of a child. It is not abstract. Every file is a record of a real crime against a real child. And when that file is shared, the child is victimized again.In 2025, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) received 21.3 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation. Those reports contained 61.8 million images, videos, and files.I...