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
