Google Has Tagged A Vast Database Of Child Porn Images - Making Them Impossible To See
The BBC reports that "digital fingerprints" of known child sex abuse photographs, identified and compiled by a UK charity called the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), will be used to generate flags that prevent browsers from accessing them.
The IWF has the sole purpose of tackling child sexual abuse online and its team has manually identified the pictures and flagged them as harmful. The organisation says it "uses intelligence to actively seek out child sexual abuse content", and also researches and analyses trends in the area. A further measure is a national hotline service for the public to report alarming imagery, while it also provides the "Online Child Sexual Abuse Reporting Portal" to countries without such a mechanism.
On Wednesday and Thursday UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced Google's technology at the "We Protect Children Online" global summit. The technology is set to be rolled out to other internet search engines: Microsoft and Mozilla are apparently also going to apply restrictions into their web browsers.
The UK government has also created a new offence to stop paedophiles soliciting explicit material from children, in the form of selfies, for instance. The law change in England and Wales, the BBC explains, will close a loophole that has allowed people to escape prosecution.
In addition, GCHQ and the National Crime Agency are going to get more powers to target abuse. A new unit has been set up to specifically combat people who use encryption techniques - like Tor browsers and the "dark web" - to hide their identities and share material. A Serious Crime Bill was on its way through Parliament today.
IWF's chief executive, Susie Hargreaves, said in a statement on Wednesday:
"The IWF is acutely aware that regardless of how successful we are at removing content hosted in the UK, this is a global problem which requires every country to stand up and play an active role. By working together across the world we will move one step closer to eradicating this heinous crime.
"This is important because every single image or video is of a real child being sexually abused and every time someone views that image or video that child is re-victimised."