A Childhood for every child

As the issue of ISP level filtering in Australia rages on, it is important to remind ourselves about some of the reasons that are driving this policy change. Perhaps the most compelling, and certainly the most disturbing, is the proliferation of child pornography and the abuse and exploitation that accompanies the trade and distribution of this material.

For many years, Microsoft has been working with law enforcement agencies, child protection groups and ISPs to look at what can be done via technology to help reduce the spread of child pornography, help track and trace on-line predators and educate the community about what can be done to protect children online. In line with that partnership, earlier this week Microsoft Corporation announced the donation of new technology to the United States based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) that has the potential to make a drastic difference in the fight against the spread of child pornography online. Further details are outlined in the Huffington Post by Brad Smith, General Counsel for Microsoft Corporation.

The technology, called PhotoDNA, was initially created by Microsoft Research, to help NCMEC in its efforts to find hidden copies of the worst images of child sexual exploitation known today. NCMEC has worked with law enforcement to identify many of the worst images of child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Once NCMEC assigns PhotoDNA signatures to known images of abuse, those signatures can be shared with online service providers, who can match them against the hashes of photos on their own services, find copies of the same photos and remove them. Also, by identifying previously “invisible” copies of identified photos, law enforcement may get new leads to help track down the perpetrators.

PhotoDNA is just one tool that can be used to help crack down on child pornography and exploitation. Perhaps the most potent is community awareness of the problem.

We believe that debate on ISP level filtering of refused classification material is important in raising the level of awareness, and we have also said that public confidence in the application of any blocked internet content should be governed by a regular review or audit, conducted a body independent of government.

Equally, however in the debate about free expression and access to content by responsible citizens, let’s not forget that the internet can be haven for those who wish to conduct some of the most shocking abuse and exploitation of children.

We also hope other technology companies join us - not just commenting on the sidelines but taking practical steps to help ISPs in making the internet a most trustworthy and safe experience for everyone.

Sassoon Grigorian, Manager, Government Affairs

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