Web Firms Crack Down on Kiddy Porn

Five of the United States’ top Internet firms have banded together to construct a database of known child pornography images and develop additional tools to help prevent the spread of such materials, the Associated Press reports via Yahoo News.

The five companies—AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft, EarthLink and United Online—said Tuesday that they’d contribute $1 million to create and maintain the database, which is expected to be operational by 2007, under the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to the AP.

The news comes amid mounting pressure from the U.S. government for ISPs and other Web firms to do more to combat child pornography. The Department of Justice recently ordered Internet companies to retain records of their users’ Web search and surfing habits for longer than they had to previously.

Under the plan, the children’s protection center will collect all known kiddy porn images and mark them with a specific mathematical signature derived from a common formula, the AP reports. Each involved company will check its users’ image banks for matches and notify the center of any, the AP reports.

AOL already scans e-mail attachments for viruses or other malware, and it plans to scan for child porn images as well, according to the AP. AOL also expects to eventually begin scanning additional forms of communication, like instant messages and Internet uploads, for porn, the AP reports.

The involved firms will ultimately decide how they will use the database, but every company is already required by law to notify law enforcement officials if child pornography or suspected child pornography is detected, according to the AP.

Tim Cranton, Microsoft’s director of Internet safety enforcement programs, told the AP, “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.

Company representatives are expected to meet sometime in July to talk about their respective technologies and how best to use them to battle the scourge of online kiddy porn, as well as how to ensure customer privacy at the same time, the AP reports.

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