US organisation sends Switzerland 16,750 child abuse alerts

Switzerland received 16,750 reports of suspected child sexual abuse material from a US nonprofit in 2025, SRF reported. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) sends alerts to national police forces when online material may be linked to countries outside the United States.

The organisation receives reports from major platforms, including Google, Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook, which are required by US law to flag illegal content. NCMEC processes the files automatically, including with facial-recognition technology, and forwards relevant alerts to police in the country concerned.

Fedpol, Switzerland’s federal police office, checks whether each report concerns conduct punishable under Swiss law. It sends the relevant case files to cantonal police. About 12 per cent of the alerts it receives lead to such files. Fedpol says the number of reports has risen year on year as platforms’ detection algorithms improve and the volume of abusive material online grows. The office also says offenders are using artificial intelligence to generate images and videos.

NCMEC alerts have featured in several criminal cases. They informed French authorities about a man accused of raping and killing a young woman named Lyhanna last June. In Switzerland, reports concerned a childcare worker accused of sexually abusing children at nurseries in Winterthur and Bern. However, an alert does not automatically lead to an arrest or conviction; some investigations are closed for lack of evidence. Vaud canton received 178 case files in 2025, and police spokeswoman Olivia Cutruzzolà told RTS that a criminal offence leads to a formal complaint.

Politicians have called for additional safeguards. Vaud Green MP Yannick Maury has proposed creating a blacklist of people employed in nurseries, and Zurich SVP MP Nina Fehr Düsel has submitted a similar motion at federal level. The proposal was signed by members of parliament from across the political spectrum in June. NCMEC did not respond to RTS’s request for an interview.