Google is using AI to find child sexual abuse material online

The new tool can speed up the identification of CSAM images by 700 per cent 
Spencer Platt / Staff / Getty
Amelia Heathman4 September 2018

Tech giant Google is releasing free software today that can find and identify child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online.

Just yesterday the UK’s home secretary Sajid Javid called on the tech companies to do more about abuse images on their platform.

In a speech in London, Javid said: “Getting this sort of horrific content off your platforms is the right thing for your business and the right thing for society and all eyes are now on you to do the right thing.

“I am not just asking for change, I am demanding it. If technology companies do not take more measures to remove this type of content from their platforms, then I won’t be afraid to take action.”

Using Google’s artificial intelligence, the new tool will help human moderators sort and flag CSAM photos and videos. The software will prioritise the most likely content in this category to speed up the review process and lead to the images being taken down faster.

In one trial, the AI tool helped a moderator “take action on 700 per cent more CSAM content over the same time period,” according to Google.

The tools will be made available for free to NGOs and Google’s industry partners, such as the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), which works to take down online sexual abuse content.

Speaking about the announcement, Sue Hargreaves, CEO of IWF, said: "We, and in particular our expert analysts, are excited about the development of an artificial intelligence tool which could help our human experts review material to an even greater scale and keep up with offenders, by targeting imagery that hasn’t previously been marked as illegal material.

“By sharing this new technology, the identification of images could be speeded up, which in turn could make the internet a safer place for both survivors and users."

It can be a harrowing job sorting through abusive images online for human content moderators. It’s not just CSAM images they will have to sort through, moderators also have to find and take down content relating to terrorism, killings and bestiality.

One of Facebook’s 7,500 content moderators told the Guardian: “There was literally nothing enjoyable about the job. You’d go into work at 9am every morning, turn on your computer and watch someone have their head cut off. Every day, every minute, that’s what you see. Heads being cut off.”

The hope is that with the help of AI, the burden can be removed from human moderators to sift through and deal with this content, with computers taking all the workload. Yet, there is always the fear that this could lead to abusive material going unnoticed.

The NSPCC's Head of Child Safety Online, Tony Stower, told the Standard: “Measures like this are a step forward in finding and removing existing child abuse content online, but they shouldn’t be a replacement for tackling abuse at source.

“Social networks are being used as a gateway for child abuse and our Wild West Web campaign is calling on the Government to bring in tough regulation for social networks to proactively tackle grooming and abuse on their sites.”

Google says it has been investing for years in technology to detect CSAM and will continue to do so in order to make the internet safer for people across the world.

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