The days of child porn are numbered

Five leading online service providers will jointly build a database of child-pornography images and
develop other tools to help network operators and law enforcement better prevent distribution of the images.

Pledging a total $1 million, the companies plan to set up a technology coalition to create the database as part of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The participating companies are Time Warner Inc.’s AOL, Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp., EarthLink Inc. and United Online Inc.

Ernie Allen, the chief executive of the center, observed that the Internet companies already possess many technologies to help protect their users from viruses and email “phishing”. “There’s nothing more insidious and inappropriate” than child pornography, he said. Each company will set its own procedures, but the companies will be able to exchange their best ideas in the hopes of developing an optimal program for preventing child-porn distribution. “When we pool together all our collective know-how and technical tools, we hope to come up with something more comprehensive along the lines of preventative” measures, said Tim Cranton, Microsoft’s director of Internet safety enforcement programs.

Companies that did not participate are still required by law to report any suspected childporn images.

Read [Search Engine Watch]
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