Saving the children
Software giant Microsoft has given ISPs new tools to battle
child pornography. The software, dubbed PhotoDNA, which Redmond has
given the US National Centre
for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), uses unique "signatures"
of pornography to find images of minors being sexually abused.
NCMEC chief executive Ernie Allen said on Wednesday in a conference call with
reporters that the software will have an extraordinary impact. At the
moment it is possible for images of children to stay in circulation long after
the child molesters have been jailed.
Microsoft researchers worked with Dartmouth College computer science professor
Hany Farid to create PhotoDNA software that pinpoints identifying
characteristics in digital images that computers can scan for online.
Unlike current digital image-identification software, PhotoDNA reliably
identifies pictures even if size, colouring or other characteristics have been
altered. The NCMEC is going to create a list of signatures of "the worst of the
worst" child pornography images. It will then release the
software to ISPs who can use it to find which pictures are being sent around
its network.
PhotoDNA is being incorporated into Microsoft's Bing search engine so it is
expected that Redmond will start finding some of the pictures itself.