A 38-year-old charity will be integrated into Apple’s newest operating system

THE NATIONAL Centre for Missing & Exploited Children was established through an act of Congress in 1983, but it is not part of the American government. NCMEC (pronounced “nic-mic”) is a charity, one funded almost entirely by the Department of Justice, and which operates as a clearing house for information about abducted children. For the first few decades of its existence NCMEC’s focus was on abductions in America, helping investigations run across state lines. But as the use of the internet grew it started to turn its attention to the harm caused through online activity, specifically the trade of imagery depicting the sexual abuse of children.