In a world where we can build all kinds of crazy apps and software, it’s a bit shocking that more hasn’t been done to stop the proliferation of child pornography on the Internet. But Microsoft is trying to do its part with the company’s PhotoDNA technology, which helps find and remove some of the worst images of child sexual exploitation from the web.
The software is already used by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) along with Facebook, and should be rolled out across Bing, Hotmail and Skydrive soon.
But Microsoft still wants to do more.
That said, Redmond has partnered with NetClean to make PhotoDNA image matching tech available to police and law enforcement at no cost. Hopefully, this will lead to more empowered and efficient investigation and rescue of victims.
Over 65 million images and videos of child sexual exploitation have been reviewed by the NCMEC since 2002, 10 percent of which are of infants or toddlers who can’t even speak up to protect themselves.
Created in collaboration with Dartmouth College, PhotoDNA creates a signature for each image, which allows it to be compared with other image signatures to detect copies. This often leads to removal of the worst pornographic images of children that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.
Microsoft, founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, is a veteran software company, best known for its Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software. Starting in 1980 Microsoft formed a partnership with IBM allowing Microsoft to sell its software package with the computers IBM manufactured. Microsoft is widely used by professionals worldwide and largely dominates the American corporate market. Additionally, the company has ventured into hardware with consumer products such as the Zune and...
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