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SALT LAKE CITY — Google is amplifying its efforts to eradicate child abuse imagery on the Internet by committing millions of dollars to the global cause.
The giant Internet company entered the fight against child exploitation in 2006 when it joined the Technology Coalition and other tech companies. Together, they developed software and hardware to help fight child abuse images and locate missing children.
Google pledged its commitment again in an announcement Tuesday, when the company revealed a $5 million effort to support its partners.
"It is critical that we take action as a community — as concerned parents, guardians, teachers and companies — to help combat this problem," Jacquelline Fuller, director of Google Giving, wrote in a blog post. "Child sexual exploitation is a global problem that needs a global solution."
In 2011, a program called Cybertipline Child Victim Identification Program, ran by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, reviewed more than 17 million images and videos of suspected child abuse, according to the blog.
Related:
Google begins launching Internet-beaming balloons
Google is launching Internet-beaming antennas into the stratosphere aboard giant, jellyfish- shaped balloons with the lofty goal of getting the entire planet online.That number is four times what was reviewed in 2007 by the Exploited Children's Division, and that number is still growing exponentially with the help of large internet companies.
Google also announced a $2 million fund, called the Child Protection Technology Fund, to encourage the development of tools to more effectively detect and take down images. Ultimately those tools could be used to find and take action against the criminals.
Citing various efforts to tag child sexual abuse images, Google gave insight into its past projects and success in combating child exploitation.
In 2008, the company began using "hashing" technology to tag and identify duplicate images. More recently, Google began to incorporate encrypted "fingerprints" to better equip law enforcement, charities and companies to collaborate in taking down the images.
"We're in the business of making information widely available, but there's certain 'information' that should never be created or found," Fuller wrote. "We can do a lot to ensure it's not available online — and that when people try to share this disgusting content they are caught and prosecuted."
