Google to report child abuse content directly to Indian authorities

BENGALURU: Google said on Monday (Sep 21) it has agreed to report content flagged as child sexual abuse material to Indian authorities, breaking from a global practice under which such reports are first routed through a US non-profit.

The decision follows a similar announcement by Meta last week. It comes after two Indian government sources told Reuters they had in recent weeks pressed tech companies like Google and Microsoft to report child abuse content concerning India directly, given concerns that the existing system delays reports significantly.

A Google spokesperson said the company "invests significantly to detect, deter, remove, and report child sexual abuse material", and described the proposal as part of the company's "ongoing discussions with the government of India".

India is the largest market by users for both Meta's Facebook and Google's YouTube, and Meta's own shift followed weeks of friction with the Indian government, including an apology last month by CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the spread of child sexual abuse material on the company's platforms.

Meta and Alphabet's Google have for years made such reports to the US-based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which then relays reports to law enforcement in the country involved.

Indian officials had argued to tech platforms that the arrangement costs precious time in cases where a child may be in active danger, since reports pass through that intermediary before reaching domestic police who can act on the ground, according to two sources.

Child sexual abuse material remains a vast and growing global problem. The CyberTipline, run by that same nonprofit, received more than 21.3 million reports from around the world of suspected child sexual exploitation in 2025.

Technology and law enforcement officials in the United States, the European Union and elsewhere have pushed platforms to speed up detection and reporting, though most countries continue to route reports through the US nonprofit as the primary international clearing house.