A new task force will take ‘fingerprints’ of child sexual abuse images in an attempt to prevent them from being shared online.
Analysts will assess, hash and score two million images from the UK government’s Child Abuse Database (CAID) by creating a unique code like a fingerprint.
The illegal images include Category A and B material – the most serious images and videos of child sexual abuse.
The working group was created by the UK-based charity Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) and is funded by a grant from the international child welfare organization Thorn.
IWF will distribute the hashes to tech companies around the world so that they can be blocked or removed if users try to share the images.
The charity said 2020 was the worst year on record for the amount of child pornography material identified online and deleted.
Its analysts processed 299,600 reports of potentially illegal material, an increase of 15% from the previous year.
They found that more than half (153,350) contained pictures or videos of children who were sexually abused, a 16% increase from the previous year.
Susie Hargreaves, CEO of the IWF, described the new working group as “a big step forward for Internet security”.
She said: “We have created this leading task force of highly trained analysts to help spur global efforts to stop the distribution of child sexual abuse images online.
“Not only will this absolutely vital work help create a safer internet for all of us, it will help victims whose images of sexual abuse are shared time and time again, preventing their continued re-victimization and exploitation.”
Safeguard Minister Victoria Atkins added: “This government is committed to ensuring that we do everything in our power to prevent child sexual abuse online and the innovative use of technology is at the heart of it.
“I am delighted that the data from the Child Abuse Image Database (CAID) is helping the IWF carry out this valuable work for …
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Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2021-06-02 00:27:00
