Copyright © 2019 The New York TimesTUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2019INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY
In collaboration with
By MICHAEL H. KELLER
and GABRIEL J.X. DANCE
The images are horrific. Children,
some just 3 or 4 years old, being sexually
abused and in some cases tortured.
Pictures of child sexual abuse have
long been produced and shared to sat-
isfy twisted adult obsessions. But it has
never been like this: Technology compa-
nies reported a record 45 million online
photos and videos of the abuse last year.
More than a decade ago, when the re-
ported number was less than a million,
the proliferation of the explicit imagery
had already reached a crisis point. Tech
companies, law enforcement agencies
and legislators in Washington respond-
ed, passing landmark legislation in 2008
meant to rein in the scourge.
Yet the explosion in detected content
kept growing — exponentially.
An investigation by The New York
Times found
an insatiable
criminal un-
derworld that
had exploited
the flawed and
insufficient ef-
forts to contain
it. Many tech
companies
failed to ade-
quately police
sexual abuse
i m a g e r y o n
their platforms, or failed to cooperate
sufficiently with the authorities when
they found it.
Law enforcement agencies devoted to
the problem were left understaffed and
underfunded, even as they were asked to
handle far larger caseloads.
The United States Justice Department
neglected to write mandatory monitor-
ing reports, nor did it appoint a senior
official to lead a crackdown. And the
group tasked with serving as a federal
clearinghouse for the imagery — the
go-between for the tech companies and
the authorities — was ill equipped for the
expanding demands.
A paper recently published with that
group, the National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children, described the
system as at “a breaking point.”
While the problem is global in scope —
most of the images found last year were
traced to other countries — it is one firm-
ly rooted in the United States because of
the central role Silicon Valley has played
in facilitating the imagery’s spread and
in reporting it to the authorities.
While the material, commonly known
as child pornography, predates theBy KIRK SEMPLE
SAINT-MARTIN, French West In-
dies — In the debris were the vestiges
of a holiday home: flip-flops, a romance
novel, a child’s ball floating in a plunge
pool’s fetid waters.
On a recent visit, it looked like an artil-
lery barrage had smashed into this bun-
galow and other cottages on a bluff above
the Atlantic Ocean. This destruction
from a Category 5 hurricane was not in
the Abaco Islands, devastated by Dorian
last month. This was on St. Martin, an is-
land that took a direct hit from Hurricane
Irma on September 6, 2017, and where re-
covery is still far from complete.
It caused billions of dollars in damage
across the 89-square-kilometer island,
which is split between the French terri-
tory of Saint-Martin, with a population
of about 32,000, and Sint Maarten, a
mostly autonomous country within the
Kingdom of the Netherlands, with a pop-
ulation of about 41,000.
After the storm, President Emmanu-
el Macron of France promised a speedy
recovery for the French side, vowing,
“Saint-Martin will be reborn, I am com-
mitted.”
The toughest questions are how to
rebuild, or whether to rebuild, amid the
threat of evermore powerful storms.
This has led to a debate less about eco-
nomics and more about politics, class,
culture and race, pitting the local major-
ity-black population against the Frenchstate. The top French official on the is-
land says she wants more restrictions
on construction in the areas most at risk
to storms. But residents fear they could
be forced off property that has been in
their families for generations.
In a region that has experienced Cat-
egory 5 storms frequently in recent
years, the story playing out on St. Mar-
tin is likely to be repeated elsewhere in
the Caribbean and in other nations with
coastal regions.
On the French side of the island, Hur-
ricane Irma damaged about 95 percent
of the buildings.
Bernadette Carty had lived all her 65
years on the waterfront, and she ignored
the evacuation orders that preceded Ir-
ma’s landfall. But the hurricane was
among the most powerful storms ever tohit the island, an example of how climate
change has made hurricanes more de-
structive. As Irma rumbled ashore, Ms.
Carty, her daughter and two grandchil-
dren dove for cover under a mattress.
When they emerged, they discov-
ered that the storm surge and wind had
gouged holes in the house and had swept
away Ms. Carty’s sister from next door.
She was one of 11 people who died on
the French side of the island. Two died
on the Dutch side. Ms. Carty has been
living in an apartment ever since, and
hopes to rebuild. “This hurricane is the
devil,” she said.
The storm devastated the island’s
main airport, blocked its ports and
effectively shut down its tourismCon tin ued on Page II Con tin ued on Page IIHurricane Irma hit
St. Martin in 2017,
exposing racial tensions.
Children’s
Sex Abuse
Overruns
Internet
The Fight After the Storm
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MEGHAN DHALIWAL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESFew resources
to investigate
the 45 million
images of
criminal acts.
Marie Abner, top, had lived in a Saint-Martin neighborhood now seen as at
risk. French President Emmanuel Macron had promised a speedy recovery.