Service: AI to combat child pornography online

Responsible organisation: the Zentral- und Ansprechstelle Cybercrime (Contact Office for Cyber Crime, ZAC NRW) (Local Government)

An AI tool to identify pornographic images of children was developed in a collaboration between (Richter, 2019) Microsoft and the Ministry of Justice of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Zentral- und Ansprechstelle Cybercrime (Contact Office for Cyber Crime, ZAC NRW) based in the department of public prosecution in Cologne. In order to comply with strict regulations related to data and child protection, software is used to blur images in police investigations on the police servers in Germany before they are uploaded to Microsoft servers in a non-identifiable way. In the cloud, algorithms analyze the images for pornographic content, identify the faces of victims and abusers and compare them to existing profiles stored in a database. These results are returned to the police for further analysis. This software aims to reduce the workload and mental strain police endure while investigating child abuse.

Additional information

Source Open Innovation Regione Lombardia
Web site https://www.dw.com/en/germany-new-ai-microsoft-combat-child-porn/a-49899882 https://news.microsoft.com/de-de/ki-im-einsatz-gegen-kinderpornografie/
Start/end date 2019 -
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