AWS Customer Guide: Leveraging global child safety partnerships for CSEA prevention

Our commitment

AWS is committed to combating online child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA). We maintain partnerships with leading global child safety organizations, such as NCMEC, the Tech Coalition, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), and the International Association of Internet Hotline Providers (INHOPE), so that customers can access tools, expert guidance, and collaborative programs to strengthen their CSEA prevention capabilities.

Whether you've received a CSEA-related abuse report, are building out a child safety program, or are looking to understand your obligations, this article and AWS Trust & Safety connect you to the resources and organizations that can help.

How we help

We engage with a variety of organizations and support their work to protect children. Amazon is a member of multiple child safety organizations, including INHOPE and the IWF. We also sit on the boards of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the Tech Coalition. Each organization provides unique resources and capabilities to help technology companies address CSEA.

Tech Coalition

The Tech Coalition is a global industry alliance that brings technology companies together to prevent CSEA. It contains a growing network of member companies that span social media, gaming, dating, AI, financial services, domains, and other services that host or enable user interaction. The Tech Coalition helps companies strengthen their individual safety efforts while contributing to shared industry solutions through collaboration, intelligence sharing, and capacity building.

Support resources:
Pathways: Pathways is a free program that’s open to technology companies that host or provide access to user-generated content or communications. Pathways provides practical guidance, resources, and expert support to help establish strong child safety foundations. These include access to tools and templates, insights into key global regulatory requirements, guidance on CSEA detection and reporting to NCMEC, and support on emerging risks such as financial sextortion and AI-generated harms. The program also includes an optional paid component, Elevate, for companies that want more tailored capacity-building support.

Lantern: Lantern is a platform where users can access various types of abuse signals, including content hashes for CSAM and CSEM, URLs, keywords, and user-related information such as account details and IP addresses. The platform also provides a comprehensive toolkit for abuse detection by supporting the sharing ofmodel weights and NCMEC CyberTipline report IDs.

Membership opportunities: AWS customers may qualify for Tech Coalition membership, which provides access to broader programs, services, and collaborative opportunities beyond the Pathways program.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)

NCMEC is a nonprofit corporation whose mission is to help find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation, and prevent child victimization. NCMEC works with families, victims, private industry, law enforcement, and the public to help with preventing child abductions, recovering missing children, and providing services to deter and combat child sexual exploitation. NCMEC operates the CyberTipline, the centralized US system for reporting online child exploitation. Under US federal law, US electronic service providers (ESPs) and remote computing services have reporting obligations when they obtain actual knowledge of apparent violations that involve CSEA on their services.

Support resources:
CyberTipline registration: ESPs and remote computing services can register to access NCMEC’s CyberTipline reporting system here.

Notice and takedown process: NCMEC reviews each report and shares them with the appropriate law enforcement agency or Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force if sufficient information is available to action law enforcement. In addition to the information that the reporting party provides, NCMEC typically adds geolocation information (if appropriate/available) and cross-references identifying information such as email address, username, or IP address with existing CyberTipline Reports.

Compliance guidance: Resources and support to help companies understand their reporting obligations under federal law.

Prevention education and professional training: NCMEC offers free safety and prevention education for families and child-serving professionals that covers online and real-world safety topics. Online professional training courses are available through NCMEC Connect, a learning platform that provides resources and best practices related to missing and exploited children.

Internet Watch Foundation (IWF)

The IWF is a UK-based charity that’s dedicated to detecting, disrupting, and removing child sexual abuse material online. The IWF operates a public reporting hotline and proactively searches the open and deep web for criminal content. It issues takedown notices to hosting providers and companies and coordinates removals through its global network of partner hotlines and law enforcement. IWF members receive access to a range of detection, blocking, and alerting services, and IWF analysts individually assess every piece of content. With this access, member companies gain the tools to detect, block, and respond to illegal content on their platforms.

Support resources:
Dynamic blocking lists: Licensed access to confirmed CSEA URLs with real-time updates to support proactive content blocking and detection.

Image hash list: Digital fingerprints (hashes) of known child sexual abuse images that allow for automated detection and matching without storing actual content.

URL list: An accurate and current list of web addresses that contain child sexual abuse content that partners can use to turn on blocking while removal efforts are underway.

Non-photographic imagery URL list: A list of known webpages for blocking that show computer-generated imagery (CGI), drawn, or animated pictures of children suffering abuse.

Keyword list: Curated search terms and keywords to proactively identify and locate child sexual abuse content online.

Domain alerts: Notifications when IWF identifies illegal content on specific domains, enabling targeted monitoring and response.

Virtual currency alerts: Intelligence on the connection between virtual currency and the distribution of child abuse images. This intelligence helps law enforcement and private sector customers work together to eradicate commercial distribution.

Real-time alerts: Immediate notifications when IWF identifies illegal content so that rapid response and removal can occur.

Analyst-verified content: Trained IWF analysts individually assess every piece of content to verify accuracy and reduce false positives.

International Association of Internet Hotline Providers (INHOPE)

INHOPE is a global network of hotlines that aims to eliminate CSAM from the internet. INHOPE provides a safe, anonymous way for the public to report suspected CSAM online and coordinates its rapid identification and removal across borders.

Support resources:
Trusted Flaggers: INHOPE hotlines operate as Trusted Flaggers under the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), and many technology companies rely on them in this capacity. Reports from Trusted Flaggers are processed with priority over public reports, accelerating the removal of identified content.

Universal Classification Schema (UCS): Launched in March 2023, the UCS establishes a standardized language for classifying CSEA, with vetted labels and definitions that align with legal definitions across jurisdictions. Companies that adopt the UCS normalize their internal terminology and improve the quality and speed of collaboration with hotlines, law enforcement, and industry partners globally.

Using these resources
Establishing effective child safety programs requires the right resources, expertise, and industry support. Customers who receive CSEA-related abuse reports or who are looking to strengthen their child safety capabilities can contact AWS Trust & Safety at trustandsafety@support.aws.com. We can help connect you with the appropriate resources.

Note: This is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. You should seek your own professional advice regarding your specific obligations. Information listed in this article was last updated April 2026.

Additional resources

Amazon CSAM transparency report

AWS Marketplace CSEA offerings

AWS Trust & Safety:

• Abuse Notice FAQs
• Abuse Reporting FAQs