Whereas: In Apple’s Human Rights Policy1 , the company asserts that “we believe in the power of technology to empower and connect people around the world—and that business can and should be a force for good.” As the largest and most innovative tech company in the world, Apple is uniquely positioned to both defend user privacy and prevent victimization of at-risk populations. And yet, the balance of privacy and safety at Apple has tilted in a concerning direction. In early 2024, Apple was named2 to the National Center on Sexual Exploitation’s ‘Dirty Dozen’ list for the second year in a row, a record of the biggest companies engaged in facilitation and enabling sexual abuse and exploitation. Instances include Apple’s decision to reverse the implementation of NeuralHash, a program designed to scan for child sexual abuse material while maintaining user privacy, indicating to some that Apple’s willingness to prevent distribution of illegal, abusive content came second to its desire to protect users’ online privacy. Shareholders who care about both user privacy and child safety deserve further information on how Apple arrived at this decision. Outside of NeuralHash, Apple still reportedly fails3 to block sexually explicit content from users under the age of twelve and does not default to censoring explicit content for teenage users on its messaging services. The App Store also recommends4 content rated above an account user’s entered age, a practice that exposes underage users to sexually explicit content. This inaction is impossible to reconcile with Apple’s stated commitments to “treating everyone with dignity and respect” and its business model as a “force for good.” This is more than a moral point — it’s a signiScant liability for Apple. Apple is arguably the most valuable brand on earth, estimated5 at over $1 trillion, a massive proportion of its more than $3 trillion market value6 . This makes Apple a brand built on trust, and 1 https://www.apple.com/compliance/pdfs/Apple-Human-Rights-Policy.pdf 2 https://endsexualexploitation.org/apple/ 3 https://www.wired.com/story/apple-csam-scanning-heat-initiativeletter/#:~:text=Today%2C%20in%20a%20rare%20move,collectively%20as%20Communication%20Safety% 20features. 4 https://protectchildren.ca/en/resources-research/app-age-ratings-report/ 5 https://fortune.com/2025/05/16/apple-worlds-most-valuable-brand-2025/ 6 https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AAPL/ therefore more vulnerable to public scandal. Lawsuits7 surrounding online proliferation of CSAM threaten billion-dollar damages at Apple. Further scandals and litigation around CSAM pose a signiScant threat to company brand value. If a company’s corporate philosophy on human rights allows the sexualization of innocent children to fall through the cracks, this belies either a lack of meaningful commitment to those rights, or an inability to effectively protect them. Apple can do better—and create a world where “think different” means being the industry gold standard when it comes to protecting the most innocent among us.