Social Networks Unite To Battle Child Porn
May 22nd, 2011 | by Jen |Facebook and Microsoft have formally unveiled an alliance to ferret out child porn and those that share such images at the world’s leading online social network.
Facebook will use PhotoDNA technology developed by Microsoft and Dartmouth College computer science professor Hany Farid to search for matches to pictures in a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) database.
“We think this is a game changer and we are thrilled to be a part of this partnership,” Facebook assistant general counsel Chris Sonderby said in broadcast streamed at the social network.
PhotoDNA has evaluated more than two billion digital pictures at Microsoft services, finding 1000 matches on SkyDrive and 1500 matches through Bing image indexing, according to Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit associate general counsel Bill Harmon.
“It is very efficient technology and will not slow down a network,” Farid said during the live-streamed presentation.
“It has scanned over two billion images without a single false positive.”
PhotoDNA will scan the hundreds of millions photos uploaded daily to Facebook, blocking pictures recognised as child porn and, hopefully, leading police to the sources, according to Sonderby.
If caches of such imagery are seized, new pictures will be “fingerprinted” and made part of the PhotoDNA net, according to NCMEC chief executive Ernie Allen.
The California-based social networking service is reported to have more than 600 million members around the planet.
“Facebook is becoming a model for the entire internet industry,” Allen said, who expressed hope that pressure would be put on other online services to employ the child-porn-detecting technology.
PhotoDNA will also be scouring Facebook uploads for pictures of children reported missing, since youths tend to stay connected with friends at the social network even if they are dodging family, according to police.