Child sexual exploitation, abuse and nudity

Policy rationale

We do not allow content or activity that sexually exploits or endangers children. When we become aware of apparent child exploitation, we report it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), in compliance with applicable law. We know that sometimes people share nude images of their own children with good intentions. However, we generally remove these images because of the potential for abuse by others and to help avoid the possibility of other people reusing or misappropriating the images.

We also work with external experts, to discuss and improve our policies and enforcement around online safety issues, especially with regard to children.

Do not post:

Child sexual exploitation

Content, activity or interactions that threaten, depict, praise, support, provide instructions for, make statements of intent, admit participation in or share links of the sexual exploitation of children (including real minors, toddlers or babies, or non-real depictions with a human likeness, such as in art, AI-generated content, fictional characters, dolls etc.). This includes, but is not limited to,

• Sexual intercourse

• Explicit sexual intercourse or oral sex, defined as mouth or genitals entering or in contact with another person's genitals or anus, when at least one person's genitals or anus is visible.

• Implied sexual intercourse or oral sex, including when contact is imminent or not directly visible.

• Stimulation of genitals or anus, including when activity is imminent or not directly visible.

• Any of the above involving an animal.

• Children with sexual elements, including, but not limited to,

• Restraints

• Signs of arousal

• Focus on genitals or anus

• Presence of aroused adult

• Presence of sex toys or use of any object for sexual stimulation, gratification or sexual abuse

• Sexualised costume

• Stripping

• Staged environment (for example, on a bed) or professionally shot (quality/focus/angles)

• Open-mouth kissing

• Stimulation of human nipples or squeezing of female breast (EXCEPT in the context of breastfeeding)

• Presence of by-products of sexual activity

• Content involving children in a sexual fetish context

• Content that supports, promotes, advocates or encourages participation in paedophilia, unless it is discussed neutrally in a health context

• Content that identifies or mocks alleged victims of child sexual exploitation by name or image

Solicitation

Content that solicits sexual content or activity depicting or involving children, defined as:

• Child sexual abuse material (CSAM)

• Nude imagery of real or non-real children

• Sexualised imagery of real or non-real children

Content that solicits sexual encounters with children

Inappropriate interactions with children

Content that constitutes or facilitates inappropriate interactions with children, such as:

• Arranging or planning sexual encounters with children

• Enticing children to engage in sexual activity through sexualised conversations or offering, displaying, obtaining or requesting sexual material to or from children, through purposeful exposure or in private messages

• Engaging in implicitly sexual conversations in private messages with children

• Obtaining or requesting sexual material from children in private messages

Exploitative intimate imagery and sextortion

Content that attempts to exploit real children by:

• Coercing money, favours or intimate imagery with threats to expose real or non-real intimate imagery or information

• Sharing, threatening or stating an intent to share private sexual conversations or real or non-real intimate imagery

Sexualisation of children

• Content (including photos, videos, real-world art, digital content and verbal depictions) that sexualises real or non-real children

• Groups, Pages and profiles dedicated to sexualising real or non-real children

Child nudity

Content that depicts real or non-real child nudity where nudity is defined as:

• Close-ups of real or non-real children's genitalia

• Real or non-real nude toddlers, showing:

• Visible genitalia, even when covered or obscured by transparent clothing

• Visible anus and/or fully nude close-up of buttocks

• Real or non-real nude minors, showing:

• Visible genitalia (including genitalia obscured only by pubic hair or transparent clothing)

• Visible anus and/or fully nude close-up of buttocks

• Uncovered female nipples

• No clothes from neck to knee – even if no genitalia or female nipples are showing

• Unless the non-real imagery is for health purposes or is a non-sexual depiction of child nudity in real-word art

Non-sexual child abuse

Videos or photos that depict real or non-real non-sexual child abuse regardless of sharing intent, unless the imagery is from real-world art, cartoons, films or video games

Content that praises, supports, promotes, advocates for, provides instructions for or encourages participation in non-sexual child abuse

In addition to removing accounts that violate our Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Nudity (CSEAN) policies, our reviewers and automated systems consider a broad spectrum of signals to help prevent potentially unwanted or unsafe interactions.

• We may restrict access to products and features (e.g. the ability to follow certain accounts) for adults based on their interactions with other accounts, searches for or interactions with violating content, or membership in communities (e.g. groups) that we have removed for violating our policies.

For the following content, we include a warning screen so that people are aware that the content may be disturbing and limit the ability to view the content to adults aged eighteen and older:

• Videos or photos that depict police officers or military personnel committing non-sexual child abuse

• Videos or photos of non-sexual child abuse, when law enforcement, child protection agencies or trusted safety partners request that we leave the content on the platform for the express purpose of bringing a child back to safety

For the following content, we include a sensitivity screen so that people are aware that the content may be upsetting to some:

• Videos or photos of violent immersion of a child in water in the context of religious rituals

For the following Community Standards, we require additional information and/or context to enforce:

For the following content, we include a warning label so that people are aware that the content may be sensitive:

• Imagery posted by a news agency that depicts child nudity in the context of famine, genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity, unless accompanied by a violating caption or shared in a violating context, in which case the content is removed

We may remove imagery depicting the aftermath of non-sexual child abuse when reported by news media partners, NGOs or other trusted safety partners.

We may remove content that identifies alleged victims of child sexual exploitation through means other than name or image if content includes information that is likely to lead to the identification of the individual.

We may remove content created for the purpose of identifying a private minor if there is a risk to the minor's safety, when requested by law enforcement, government, trusted partner or the content is self-reported by the minor or the minor's parent/legal guardian