End-to-end encryption complicates child-abuse content detection

NZ Herald

09-05-2025

'People will find it quite shocking to see how much child exploitation can be facilitated by those platforms,' she said.
Currently, when the content is shared through online groups, it can be flagged by protection systems and subsequently investigated by police, the DIA and the international networks they work with.
Parkes said that, with encryption in place, reporting would rely on those within the communication groups to pass it on to police.
'It's predicted that a huge number of those reports will dry up. The exploitation will still be there, but it won't be picked up the way it currently is.'
The DIA has a Digital Child Exploitation Filtering System in place to block access to websites known to host illegal child sexual abuse material, even when those sites are using end-to-end encryption.
The system led to 60 search warrants and the seizure of 235 devices last year.
'Investigators are encountering offenders who have amassed increasingly large volumes of illegal material where harm within those files is increasingly severe,' the DIA said.
Parkes said encryption was being rolled out as people were increasingly worried about online privacy, but the DIA figures showed child abuse material was far more common than many people realised.
'This shows how highly vulnerable young people are to being sexually exploited online, and usually through behaviours that are really very normal ways of engaging online these days for young people.
'[This is] a really huge problem, one we can't keep pretending doesn't affect us and our young people here in New Zealand.'