Facebook announced today that it will be the first company to use a tool called PhotoDNA from Microsoft that will scan images for child pornography and remove them from the site.
As the Seattle PI reports, Facebook will be the first company to use this tool from Microsoft. PhotoDNA identifies known images of child pornography by analyzing the images for certain characteristics and compares them to an image database and removes them from Facebook.
“Facebook will run PhotoDNA against all photos uploaded to the site, to block the distribution of these images of criminal exploitation. The technology will also better enable us to report these incidents to the National Center (for Missing and Exploited Children) and police, to allow them to take immediate action,” said the assistant general counsel for Facebook, Chris Sonderby.
Facebook, who works with the NCMEC, INTERPOL, and the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children, gave a response regarding child porn being an issue on the site:
Since our founding, Facebook has continually been iterating on its technical systems and investigative techniques to proactively prevent abuse on our site. We view Photo DNA as the next logical step in helping protect children online. The implementation of this technology was not a response to a specific increase in volume or particular incidents. Instead, it’s the more than 200 million images uploaded to our site daily that gives us the unique opportunity to prevent the further spread of these images & catch more bad guys.
