On 17 May 2024, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a UK non-profit charity fighting online child sexual abuse (CSA), announced the results of an 18-month partnership with Aylo (formerly MindGeek), a large adult entertainment platform and multinational company incorporated in Luxembourg with a very substantial operational base and presence in Montreal, Canada. The IWF assembled an Expert Advisory Board and worked with various stakeholders – including academics, child protection organizations and adult service providers – to develop a robust standard of good practice, aimed at guiding the adult industry in the fight against child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online.
A Standard of Good Practice for Adult Services (Standard) sets out the conditions that must be met by adult services who wish to apply for full membership of the IWF. It is based on an approach that allows provisional membership for one year for those companies that meet the Basic Standard. Companies would then be eligible for full membership if they reached the additional requirements of the Higher Standard and pass an independent auditing of individual companies’ compliance.
Principles
The Advisory Board established six principles for adult services for tackling CSA, to apply in all countries where services are provided, across all sites:
- Adopt a zero-tolerance approach to child sexual abuse.
- Ensure transparency, with enforceable terms of service.
- Operate with accountability, with clear reporting mechanisms.
- Embrace technological tools and solutions.
- Collaborate with specialists.
- Embrace regulatory and safety initiatives, including voluntary principles.
Specific Steps to Achieve Good Practice
The Standard details Baseline and Higher standards which must be met. Adult sites will be asked to comply with new standards to be approved for IWF membership. The Standard Support Document provides information on tools, expertise, and technology to help the adult sector, which has billions of users worldwide, to begin deploying IWF technology to block, remove, and prevent the spread of child sexual abuse imagery online.
Aylo is charting its own path forward separate from other companies in its space. We separate ourselves by doing things no other company does.
Aylo pioneered the initiative to ID verify every single person who uploads content.
Aylo has engaged with more than 70 non-profit organizations globally to combat CSAM and NCC.
Aylo is among the first adult content companies to register and report to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), a leading non-profit organization whose mission it is to reduce child exploitation and prevent child victimization. According to NCMEC’s reports, Aylo’s platforms are some of the few adult platforms self-reporting instances of potential CSAM and among the fastest in actioning reports received from the CyberTipline
