WHEREAS: 

• Child sexual exploitation online (including Child Sexual Abuse Material, or CSAM) is an escalating threat to children worldwide that is exacerbated by the growth in Internet services and mobile technologies (including 5G),[i] widespread access to online “apps” and children increasingly accessing the Internet through mobile phones;
   
• AT&T Inc. (AT&T) is a leading Internet Service Provider, retailer of wireless communication services and devices, and growing provider of digital content and online advertising—all of which may increase CSAM risks to children;
   
• UNICEF reports that 71% of young people are already online;[ii]

WHEREAS: 

• INTERPOL reported about 4,000 unique child sex images circulating worldwide in 1995;[iii]
   
• Yet in 2018, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received 18.4 million reports of CSAM online involving 45.8 million child sexual abuse images and videos, double the amount from 2017 and a 10,000% increase since 2004.[iv]
   
• The World Health Organization now estimates 200 million children are sexually abused each year,[v] and that much of that abuse is online or captured and distributed digitally—where children are re-victimized with each viewing;

• 1 in 5 children are now sexually solicited online;[vi]
   
• Congress further passed legislation in 2018 to better hold Internet Providers legally accountable for facilitating sex trafficking on their platforms;

WHEREAS: 

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) companies deploy many practices—beyond standard parental controls—to confront child sex abuse online, including:

• Staffing child exploitation investigators in-house (Verizon Communications);
• Developing digital tools or Artificial Intelligence[vii] to detect and remove CSAM online and offering those tools open-sourced to peers (Friendly Wifi, Google, Microsoft);
• Regularly reporting on CSAM strategies (including goals and metrics) and policy violations and enforcement[viii] (Tele2, Facebook, Discord);
• Instituting Children’s Rights Risk Assessments across the enterprise (Millicom);

Proponents recognize AT&T’s efforts, but believe it lags global peers:

• AT&T’s Acceptable Use Policy prohibits CSAM;
• It removed advertisements from YouTube in 2019 after pedophiles’ widespread sexual commentary under children’s videos;
• In 2019, it financially supported the Internet Watch Foundation;

But AT&T’s 2017 Materiality Assessment ranked “Online Safety” and “Safe Use of Products and Services” as top-quadrant issues, yet it discloses little information on how it systematically addresses child sexual exploitation online;

We believe ICT companies lacking adequate strategies, policies, and disclosures to address child sexual exploitation could suffer substantial negative impacts from heightened regulation, adverse publicity, or legal risk;

RESOLVED: Shareholders request that the Board of Directors issue a report on the potential sexual exploitation of children across the Company’s businesses, including a risk evaluation, at reasonable expense and excluding proprietary/confidential information, by February 2021, assessing whether the company’s oversight, policies and practices are sufficient to prevent adverse impacts to the company’s brand reputation, product demand, or social license.  

[i]https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5630f48de4b00a75476ecf0a/t/5a83272c8165f5d2a348426d/1518544686414/6.4159_WeProtect+GA+report.pdf

[ii] https://www.unicef.org/publications/files/SOWC_2017_ENG_WEB.pdf

[iii] https://www.icmec.org/commonwealth-internet-governance-forum-a-joint-report-on-online-child-protection-combatting-child-sexual-abuse-material-on-the-internet/

[iv] https://www.facebook.com/wearethorn/photos/a.539537636085793/2387317711307767/?type=3&theater

[v] https://www.undispatch.com/here-is-how-every-country-ranks-on-child-safety/

[vi] https://valueforgood.com/publications/AI_Making_Internet_Safer_for_Children.pdf

[vii] https://www.friendlywifi.com/single-post/2019/03/28/Friendly-WiFi-joins-forces-with-Project-Arachnid-in-the-fight-to-keep-Children-Safe-Online

[viii] https://blog.discordapp.com/discord-transparency-report-jan-1-april-1-4f288bf952c9