The National Center on Sexual Exploitation or NCOSE has just released the Dirty Dozen List 2021, an annual campaign that lists and calls out 12 mainstream entities, organizations, or companies for "facilitating or profiting from sexual abuse and exploitation."
The NCOSE, former known as Morality in Media, is a non-profit organization that advocates against pornography and sex trafficking based on abolitionist principles. Started in 2013, the Dirty Dozen List is an annual review of 12 entities that are believed to be profiting off sexual exploitation.
This year's annual list includes familiar entities such as Amazon, Twitter, Netflix, and other Big Tech names. According to Christian Post, NCOSE released the Dirty Dozen List for 2021 on Tuesday morning, during which experts and staffers spoke about these entities and why they made the list, through a virtual event conducted via Zoom.
They hope to raise awareness about these entities and call them out to "stop promoting sexually graphic products and content and stop allowing sexual harassment, predatory grooming and child sexual abuse." The top five companies accused of profiting off sexual exploitation are Amazon, Google's Chromebook, the VoIP and messaging platform Discord, online resources provider EBSCO Information Services, online streaming service provider Netflix.
Also included in the Dirty Dozen List of companies accused ot profiting off sexual exploitation are the state of Nevada where some counties consider prostitution legal, content subscription service OnlyFans, social news aggregation and discussion website Reddit, "sugar dating" platform Seeking Arrangement, microblogging and social networking service Twitter, network infrastructure provider Verisign, and retail shopping website Wish.
Topping this year's Dirty Dozen List of companies profiting off sexual exploitation is Amazon, which subsidiary live streaming video website Twitch is an avenue for "sexual harassment, predatory grooming and child sexual abuse," NCOSE Executive Director Dawn Hawkins explained, as per Christian Post.
"There are frequent conversations between children and strangers, with strangers daring kids to do explicit acts or to share their contact information."
Netflix landed a place in this year's Dirty Dozen List because of its sexually graphic content, violence, and for streaming the controversial film "Cuties," which featured minors dancing provocatively. According to Variety, there was a huge spike of Netflix U.S. account cancellations due to the film's sexualized portrayal of children.
The Jack Dorsey-founded Twitter, on the other hand, is named as one of the "Dirty Dozen" because it "failed to prioritize the safety of sex trafficking and child abuse survivors who are exploited on the app."
Parents should also be concerned as some companies with services or products geared towards education also made the Dirty Dozen List. Google's Chromebook is reportedly on the list for its refusal to turn on safety features, thus exposing children in schools to sexually explicit material and sexual predators.
EBSCO Information Services, which is a leader in online resources for schools and libraries, are also on the list for its "graphic sexual content and live links to prostitution and pornography websites," which are "easily accessible to K-12 students."
NCOSE director of Corporate and Strategic Initiatives Lina Nealon warned that the entities on the Dirty Dozen List "exert enormous influence and power politically, economically, socially, and culturally." She said that while they provide convenient products and services used in everyday life, "they are also perpetuating and enabling violence and harm."
