Recently, Google announced it was working on a new program that could eliminate all images of child pornography and child abuse from the Internet.
As part of the $5 million initiative, the Internet giant is creating a technology that will be able to identify the images and filter out the sites that contain them from showing in search results. The program works by tagging offending images with unique IDs and “fingerprints” so computers can later recognize them without humans having to view the images.
On a blog post announcing the new developments, Google said its partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Internet Watch Foundation is a key element in its fight against online child exploitation. “Since 2006, we’ve been providing software and hardware to help organizations all around the world to fight child abuse images on the web and help locate missing children,” the post said.
The database-matching technology would also sync with law enforcement officials to help them identify and locate the individuals responsible for creating and distributing the content. In addition to their investment in the technology, the tech giant has set up the $2 million Child Protection Technology Fund, which incentivizes other developers to join their fight against the people who distribute child porn by creating more effective tools and software.
“We’re in the business of making information widely available, but there’s certain ‘information’ that should never be created or found,” Google said. “We can do a lot to ensure it’s not available online—and that when people try to share this disgusting content, they are caught and prosecuted.”
