Web giants in crackdown on child sex abuse images

INTERNET giants including Google, Facebook and Twitter are working with a British charity to uncover and remove millions of child sex abuse images.

For the first time, the companies have started using a database of thousands of known paedophilic images compiled by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) in a crackdown on the depraved trade.

The anti-abuse organisation has created ‘digital fingerprints’ of the vile pictures and videos so they can be automatically pulled from the internet whenever they are posted. The system works by giving each image a unique ‘ hash’ number, which makes it traceable without being viewed.

It means five firms that have teamed up with the IWF – the other two are Microsoft and Yahoo – will be able to remove or block child sex abuse images much more quickly.

The initiative comes after David Cameron announced tougher measures to combat child sexual abuse images at a Whitehall summit last year.

IWF chief executive Susie Hargreaves

‘Technological breakthrough’

said the move could be a ‘game-changer’ in the fight against child pornography online. The Government is also sharing pictures on the Home Office’s new Child Abuse Image Database with the foundation.

A spokesman for children’s charity the NSPCC said: ‘This technological breakthrough is really positive and should enable the industry to take a more pro-active role in blocking these horrendous pictures.’

However internet security experts warned that the system would not block content on the so- called ‘dark web’ – a network with restricted access – where abusers often post images.

Professor Alan Woodward, from the University of Surrey, said: ‘The danger is that 90 per cent of the web is not indexed [by the tech giants]. The so-called “deep web” is not indexed or searchable.’

The IWF said it assisted in the removal of 31,266 web pages containing abuse images last year, up from 13,182 in 2013.