Tech Coalition Announces Lantern: The 1st Child Safety Cross-Platform Signal Sharing Program

Sean Litton, executive director of the Tech Coalition, a group of technology companies aimed at collaborating to combat online child sexual exploitation,on Wednesday announced that they are launching Lantern, touted as is the first cross-platform signal-sharing program between tech giants such as Discord, Google and Meta to fight Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (OCSEA) and strengthen how they enforce their child safety policies. 

Exciting news! The Tech Coalition has launched Lantern, a groundbreaking program to tackle online child sexual exploitation and abuse. Platforms now have a powerful tool to share signals on policy violations. Together, we're fighting to create a safer digital space for every…

— mustafa chakmak (@Mustafachakmak) November 7, 2023

Online grooming and financial sextortion of young people are among the top  two primary crimes that  span multiple platforms. The Tech Coalition concluded that to uncover the whole picture and take proper action, companies need to work together. 

Related: PimEyes Banned and Blocked Searches for Minors Over Concerns of Child Endangerment

What Is Lantern?

Lantern brings together Tech Coalition companies to safely and responsibly share signals about activities and accounts that violate their Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSEA) policy. As for the participants, the program’s initial launch will include companies such as Discord, Google, Mega, Meta, Quora, Roblox, Snap, and Twitch. 

How Does Lantern Function?

For starters, participating Tech Coalition members upload signals to Lantern about activities that violate the child sexual exploitation policy identified on their platforms. For example, the signals can range from information tied to policy-violating accounts like email addresses, usernames, Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) hashes, or keywords used to groom as well as buy and sell CSAM. 

Then, other participating companies can choose from the signals available in Lantern, run the selected signal on their platform, review all activity and content on the signal surface according to policies and regulations on their respective platforms’ terms of service and take action according to their enforcement procedures.

In a case study during the program’s pilot phase, Tech Coalition highlighted that MEGA shared URLs that Meta used to investigate its platforms into potentially violating behaviours. This resulted in the removal of more than 10,000 Facebook Profiles, Pages and Instagram accounts.

However, the Tech Coalition wanted to reiterate that signals do not constitute definitive evidence of abuse but provide clues for further investigation, enhance prevention and detection, accelerate threat identification, develop situational awareness of new hunting tactics, and increase reporting of criminal crimes to authorities.

Words From Tech Coalition Participants

As mentioned above, Lantern’s initial launch will include Discord, Google, Meta, Twitch and more. When questioned about future members, the Tech Coalition stated they are committed to partnering with companies that can meet the agreements and requirements of Lantern membership. However, they will continue to welcome new participants as they learn more about the program and How to apply their respective policies may be helpful. Let’s listen to words from some participating members, shall we?

Starting with Google, Laurie Richardson, VP of Trust and Safety,  mentioned: “We commend the Tech Coalition’s leadership in bringing these companies together to further our collective fight against child sexual abuse and exploitation online. This ongoing work and the industry-wide collaboration are crucial steps in helping to keep children safe online, and the partnership speaks to Google’s longstanding commitment to preventing CSAE on our platforms. We look forward to exploring how we can best contribute to the program moving forward.”

We’re proud to be a founding member of the new Lantern program, which enables tech companies to share signals of potential harm against minors in order to better protect children online.https://t.co/IUWdCpPM2F

— Meta Newsroom (@MetaNewsroom) November 7, 2023

Following up, Antigone Davis, Global Head of Safety at Meta, stated: “Predators don’t limit their attempts to harm children to individual platforms, and the technology industry needs to work together to stop predators and protect children on the many apps and websites they use. We’ve spent over a decade fighting to keep young people safe online, and we’re glad to partner with the Tech Coalition and our peers in the Lantern program on this vital work.”

Lastly, we have words from John Redgrave, Vice President of Trust & Safety at Discord. “Our participation in the Lantern Program has enabled Discord to have a much wider and more nuanced approach to combating harmful behaviour on our platform. Crucially, we’ve been able to scale the actioning of offending accounts and the sharing of bad actor data points relating to the highest-harm abuses of our platform with other participating companies. The Tech Coalition is pivotal in sharing analysis and actionable threat information with its members to mitigate risks and enhance platform resiliency.”

Responsibilities of Tech Coalition Moving Forward

Naturally, with such a heavy duty to facilitate program access and monitor compliance through eligibility verification, legal agreements, data audits, and more, the Tech Coalition has massive responsibilities in working diligently and calming concerns. Therefore, they have listed four main concerns that they will be responsible for managing, in which are: 

• Safety and Privacy by Design: Establish clear guidelines and rules for appropriate data sharing between participating companies, ongoing review of Lantern policies and practices, and mandatory training and periodic check-ins with those who join.
• Respecting Human Rights: Commissioned Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) to conduct a Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) to inform Lantern development and provide ongoing guidance as we iterate and improve program progress.
• Stakeholder Engagement: A continuous engagement work as the Tech Coalition has engaged more than 25 experts and organisations focused on child safety, digital rights, advocacy for marginalised communities, government and law enforcement to gather feedback and invite participation in the HRIA.
• Transparency: Include Lantern in the Tech Coalition’s annual transparency report and provide participating companies with recommendations on how to incorporate their participation in the program into their own transparency reports.

Lantern has the potential to become a driving force in tech companies to eliminate OCSEA. While immediate results are too much to ask, we can expect the Tech Coalition to uphold its child protection mission. To discover more related topics regarding technology and AI, bookmark our Facebook and X pages for daily updates.