Combating child pornBolstering police anti-child porn technology

Published 20 March 2012

Microsoft Corp. and NetClean the other day announced a joint effort to combat the sexual exploitation of children by making Microsoft PhotoDNA technology available and accessible to law enforcement agencies worldwide to help enhance child sex abuse investigations

Microsoft Corp. and NetClean the other day announced a joint effort to combat the sexual exploitation of children by making Microsoft PhotoDNA technology available and accessible to law enforcement agencies worldwide to help enhance child sex abuse investigations, thus allowing law enforcement more quickly to identify and rescue victims.

PhotoDNA is a signature-based, image-matching technology already used by online service providers for disrupting the spread of some of the worst-known images of child pornography online. The news provides law enforcement, at no charge, a variety of options to take advantage of the same effective technologies to fight child sexual exploitation that technology companies themselves already use.

“We can’t allow people to keep trading these horrifying images online when we have the technology to help do something about it,” said Stuart Aston, Chief Security Officer at Microsoft U.K., “Without innovation and public demand for technology companies and electronic service providers to play a more productive and proactive role in the fight against online child exploitation, the technological advantage will remain with the abusers rather than those working to protect abuse victims. Law enforcement agencies are doing incredible work to fight child sexual exploitation every day, and we are proud to joinwith NetClean to support that mission.”

“This technology saves time and resources, but most importantly, it saves kids,” said Christian Sjöberg, founder and CEO of NetClean. “We are arming law enforcement with tools that can help them better investigate child exploitation cases and get these horrible criminals off the streets. NetClean Analyze Digital Investigator (DI) and PhotoDNA aim to help expedite their efforts to put an end to child pornography.”