Use to combat child pornography of technical elements relating to reports made to the CyberTipline
18 U.S.C. § 2258C
in effect(a) Elements.—(1) In general.—NCMEC may provide elements relating to any CyberTipline report to a provider for the sole and exclusive purpose of permitting that provider to stop the online sexual exploitation of children. (2) Inclusions.—The elements authorized under paragraph (1) may include hash values or other unique identifiers associated with a specific visual depiction, including an Internet location and any other elements provided in a CyberTipline report that can be used to identify, prevent, curtail, or stop the transmission of child pornography and prevent the online sexual exploitation of children. (3) Exclusion.—The elements authorized under paragraph (1) may not include the actual visual depictions of apparent child pornography.
(b) Use by Providers.—Any provider that receives elements relating to any CyberTipline report from NCMEC under this section may use such information only for the purposes described in this section, provided that such use shall not relieve the provider from reporting under section 2258A.
(c) Limitations.—Nothing in subsections 11 So in original. Probably should be “subsection”. (a) or (b) requires providers receiving elements relating to any CyberTipline report from NCMEC to use the elements to stop the online sexual exploitation of children.
(d) Provision of Elements to Law Enforcement.—NCMEC may make available to Federal, State, and local law enforcement, and to foreign law enforcement agencies described in section 2258A(c)(3), involved in the investigation of child sexual exploitation crimes elements, including hash values, relating to any apparent child pornography visual depiction reported to the CyberTipline.
(e) Use by Law Enforcement.—Any foreign, Federal, State, or local law enforcement agency that receives elements relating to any apparent child pornography visual depiction from NCMEC under subsection (d) may use such elements only in the performance of the official duties of that agency to investigate child sexual exploitation crimes, and prevent future sexual victimization of children.
Source: OLRC USLMURL: https://uscode.house.gov/download/releasepoints/us/pl/119/95/xml_usc18@119-95.zipFetched: 6/4/2026