However you feel about Google’s implementation of software within YouTube to combat the publication of copyrighted content on the video site sans content owners’ express permission, the company has chosen to apply the technology as an aid to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to help identify files containing imagery of child sex abuse, according to a report by Carrie-Ann Skinner of PC World. A worthwhile pursuit, for sure.
Technically speaking, Google’s program employs an intelligent pattern recognition system that can adapt to changes to imagery under analysis, making it potentially very effective in helping to find exploited children and their suspected abusers, said Larry Magid, who is on the board of NCMEC and is the author of two books published for center on the subject of Internet safety, the first titled Child Safety for the Information Highway, which was published in 1994. The second, Teen Safety on the Information Highway, followed four years later.