// ARS TECHNICA — CYBERSECURITY
Epstein had huge cache of child sex pics; victims sue to find out who's in them
Survivors appalled nobody will tell them if they’re in Epstein’s CSAM collection.
On Tuesday, two survivors of child sex abuse accused the Justice Department of failing to notify dozens of victims found in Jeffrey Epstein’s massive collection of child sex images.
In a proposed class action, survivors explained that Epstein apparently started collecting child sex images in the 1990s, many of which the DOJ recovered after his arrest. In 2025, the FBI started reviewing “tens of thousands of videos” containing illegal child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and issued a memo confirming that “a large volume of images” seized depicted likely minors.
Some of these victims may have had contact with Epstein, as the disgraced financier kept a “modelbook” of nude photos of young girls roped into his ring. However, the FBI also identified hundreds of CSAM images in cache, which include approximately 15–20 images of known CSAM dating back to the 1990s. And so far, the DOJ has largely ignored those victims, who likely never met Epstein and have no way of knowing if he possessed, transported, or traded their images, survivors alleged.
“Few if any CSAM survivors have been notified that Epstein had their unlawful sexualized images,” survivors alleged.
To correct that, survivors are suing the Epstein estate, as well as Darren K. Indyke and Richard D. Kahn, who are named solely in their roles as co-executors of the estate. Survivors are hoping that a US district court in New York will agree that the estate must “provide needed notice to Epstein’s CSAM survivors and to afford them with a long-overdue and overlooked remedy for his pernicious CSAM crimes.”
If granted, the proposed class would cover any person under 18 at the time they appeared in child sex images found in Epstein’s collection. Excluded are any victims who experienced hands-on sexual contact and were never victims depicted in CSAM found in the Epstein files. Subclasses may be added following discovery in the lawsuit.
Survivors estimated that there are about 40 victims in the class whose “identities are ascertainable through records in the possession of Defendants and the United States, including through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s Victim Identification Program.” They claimed that NCMEC has flagged some victims. However, NCMEC allegedly only ran reports on “a small number” of child sex images “that were addressed in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial” but “full review, reporting, and notice to CSAM survivors were not provided.”
Ars could not immediately reach NCMEC to verify the survivors’ claims.
Remedies sought include damages for a range of CSAM violations that could perhaps cost the estate $150,000 per victim per image per violation. Survivors have also asked the court to consider imposing punitive damages.