Apple removed the controversial CSAM scanning feature from its Children's Safety webpage

Apple has quietly removed all references to CSAM from its child safety web pages, suggesting that its controversial plan to detect images of child sexual abuse on iPhones and iPads may be unsettled or even aborted after significant criticism of its approach.

Apple announced a set of new child safety features in its plans in August, including scanning child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in users' iCloud Photo Library, warning children and their parents of the safety of communications when receiving or sending pornographic photos, and expanding CSAM guidance in Siri and search.

When these features were announced, they were criticized by a wide range of individuals and organizations, including security researchers, privacy whistleblower Edward Snowden, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Facebook's former security chiefs, politicians, policy groups, university researchers, and even some Apple employees.

Most of the criticism has been directed at Apple's planned device CSAM detection, which researchers have slammed into relying on ineffective and dangerous technology that is close to implementing mass surveillance and mocking its ineffectiveness in actually identifying images of child sexual abuse.

Apple continues to roll out communication security features for the "information" feature, coming online earlier this week with the release of iOS 15.2, but amid a torrent of criticism, Apple decided to postpone the launch of CSAM, which it apparently did not expect.

In September, the company said, "Based on feedback from customers, advocacy groups, researchers, and others, we have decided to spend more time gathering opinions in the coming months and making improvements before releasing these extremely important child safety features." "

The above statement was previously added to Apple's children's safety page, but it has now disappeared, raising the possibility that Apple may have shelved or even abandoned the plan altogether.