{
  "id": "R-2579",
  "title": "Automated CSAM image scanning falsely flagged parents' medical photos of their children, Google, San Francisco and Houston, United States, 2021–2022",
  "short_title": "Google's image scanning reports parents for medical photos",
  "jurisdiction": {
    "country": "United States",
    "region": "California; Texas",
    "level": "national"
  },
  "domain": "content_moderation",
  "system_type": "ml_classifier",
  "system_name": "Google automated child-abuse imagery detection",
  "deployed_by": "Google",
  "year_start": 2021,
  "year_end": 2022,
  "harm_type": "individual",
  "subject_count_estimate": 2,
  "subject_identification": "anonymous_collective",
  "oversight_trigger": "journalism",
  "oversight_date": "2022-08-21",
  "remedy_status": "none",
  "documentation_status": "verified",
  "summary_50w": "In February 2021 Google's automated scanning flagged photos two fathers in San Francisco and Houston had taken of their young children's genital infections at medical professionals' request. Google reported both to authorities and disabled their accounts. Police in both cities cleared the fathers, but Google refused to restore one father's accounts or data even after police found no crime. The New York Times reported the cases.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "type": "other",
      "title": "Google’s Scans of Private Photos Led to False Accusations of Child Abuse",
      "url": "https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/08/googles-scans-private-photos-led-false-accusations-child-abuse",
      "publisher": "Electronic Frontier Foundation",
      "date": null,
      "access_date": "2026-04-21",
      "is_primary": false,
      "notes": "Originating report"
    },
    {
      "type": "other",
      "title": "A Dad Took Photos of His Naked Toddler for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal. (AIID report 1940, Incident 303)",
      "url": "https://incidentdatabase.ai/reports/1940",
      "publisher": "AI Incident Database (indexing The New York Times)",
      "date": null,
      "access_date": "2026-10-10",
      "is_primary": false
    }
  ],
  "tags": [
    "csam_scanning",
    "false_positive",
    "account_termination",
    "content_moderation",
    "police_referral",
    "no_appeal"
  ],
  "extraction_metadata": {
    "first_collected": "2026-04-21T11:45:22.098646+00:00",
    "last_verified": "2026-10-10T16:06:44.084191+00:00",
    "verified_by": "human_review"
  }
}