Make a Policy Exception to Allow More Awareness Raising of Non-Sexual Child Abuse
July 31, 2025
In considering two videos showing non-sexual child abuse in educational settings, the Oversight Board recommends an exception be included in Meta’s Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Nudity Community Standard to allow such content, when shared to condemn, report or raise awareness, and when children are not identifiable. Meta’s current prohibition on posting videos or photos of non-sexual child abuse, regardless of intent and even when identities are obscured, results in disproportionate restrictions on freedom of expression. Sharing such content would contribute to public debate on important children’s rights issues.
The Board has upheld Meta’s decision to allow this content in one case and overturned Meta’s decision to take it down in the other. Both posts should stay up under a newsworthiness allowance, with warning screens.
About the Cases
In the first case, an Indian media organization posted a video on its Facebook page in which a teacher yelled at a young school student for not studying, repeatedly hit his head and back, and appeared to pull at his turban. A superimposed blurred patch covered the child’s face for most of the video. The caption noted a state official has called for accountability.
In the second case, a video was posted on a Facebook page that appears to share local news from a region in France. The video shows a group of very young children, with one child crying. A teacher hits the child, who falls to the ground while the other children watch. All faces in the video are blurred. The caption references the school, date and neighborhood where the incident took place and an investigation.
After it was reported and escalated, Meta’s policy experts determined the Indian content violated the Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Nudity policy and removed it. As the content was posted to raise awareness, Meta did not apply a strike against the account, the company revealed to the Board.
The French content was removed without human review for violating the same policy. After the content creator appealed, Meta confirmed the takedown was correct but it removed the strikes it had applied due to public interest and because the content was shared to raise awareness.
Meta referred both cases to the Board. When preparing its submissions, Meta’s policy experts decided to keep up the French content with a newsworthiness allowance and warning screen. Meta said an attorney representing the child's parents had shared the video in local media to raise awareness of the incident. For Meta, this meant the public interest value outweighed the harm, as the “parents’ consent mitigated the privacy and dignity concerns.”
Key Findings
The Board finds that Meta’s prohibition on posting videos or photos of non-sexual child abuse, regardless of intent and even when identities are obscured, results in disproportionate restrictions on freedom of expression. The Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Nudity policy does not differentiate between identifiable and non-identifiable children. However, identifiability is critical. If this risk is mitigated, there are more limited privacy and dignity concerns.
The Board finds both posts violate the Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Nudity policy. However, a majority finds they should remain up under a newsworthiness allowance, with warning screens and visibility restricted to users over 18-years-old. This is consistent with Meta’s human rights responsibilities and better meets the test of necessity and proportionality, allowing greater freedom of expression. Both posts have high public interest value, encourage accountability and try to prevent identification of the children. In the French case, parental consent, while not unassailable, supports the presumption that the video’s dissemination is not contrary to the child’s best interests. Such reporting contributes to important public debates on children’s rights, in the context of growing global efforts to ban child abuse in educational settings.
A minority of the Board disagrees, finding the public interest did not outweigh the risk of harm to the privacy and dignity of the children depicted. For these members, removal would best respect the interests of the children.
The Oversight Board’s Decision
The Board upholds Meta’s decision in the French case to keep the content on platform with a newsworthiness allowance and a warning screen. The Board overturns Meta’s decision in the Indian case and requires the content to be restored with a newsworthiness allowance and a warning screen.
The Board recommends that Meta:
- Include an exception in its public-facing Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Nudity policy allowing images and videos of non-sexual child abuse perpetrated by adults, when shared with the intent to condemn, report and raise awareness. This must only be applied when the child is neither directly identifiable by name or image nor functionally identifiable (when contextual clues are likely to lead to the identification of the individual). Content should be allowed with a warning screen and restricted visibility to users aged 18 and older. This exception should be applied on escalation only.
- Should not apply strikes to accounts whose non-sexual child abuse content is removed on escalation where there are clear indicators of the user’s intent to condemn, report or raise awareness.
Further Information
To read public comments for this case, click here.
