Google Search Modified to Fight Child Pornography
Tools originally developed to filter out copyrighted content on YouTube have been adapted by intrepid Google employees to track sexual predators through pattern recognition. Designed to pick out pirated movies, the software can identify complex or modified patterns such as calendars or T-shirt logos in images and videos, which can help authorities locate images and videos that could be considered child pornography.Based on these patterns, authorities can then begin to track the abused children and, hopefully, bring the criminals to justice.
Google is handing the new program over to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to help them pore through the millions of images and files in its archive. Last year alone, the organization vetted over 5 million images and videos in an effort to identify and save victims of abuse.
"You always hope that your work will eventually be used to do some good in the world, and this was an amazing chance to make that hope real," Google research scientist Shumeet Baluja told the BBC.
From the BBC
Filed under: Audio/Video, Computers, Google
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Andrew @ Apr 16th 2008 5:22AM
Go Google!
I'm confused by patterning though, they only track images/videos uploaded? I have mixed emotions about search patterning though (I was debating the whole privacy/protection thing). I would love to see Google red-flagging people searching for "Child Porn" (and variants), but at the same time, what if I was trying to look up statistics on it, say if I wanted to find out what percentage of the youth were abused or some such. I think Google could implement ways of doing that though, if someone was searching for Child Porn 3x a day for a year, it would be fairly safe to say it's time to red flag this person.
Oh man, another thought: if they can get on MySpace, they are going to have a field day! HAHAHA