Google Chairman Eric Schmidt is still assuring users and politicians in the UK that Google is working hard to combat the problem of child pornography—and he’s also giving credit where credit is due to Microsoft.
In a Daily Mail article, Schmidt outlined the steps Google is taking to rid its search engine results of exploitive images of children. These steps include deterrence, by showing warnings crafted from Google and other charities that will pop up anytime enters a search term seeking such images.
See also: Google Is Starting War On Child Pornography, Not Ending
Microsoft and Google are teaming up on the detection and removal steps. Once illicit images are correctly identified, they will be digitally tagged with a unique fingerprint.
“This enables our computers to identify those pictures whenever they appear on our systems. And Microsoft deserves a lot of credit for developing and sharing its picture detection technology,” Schmidt wrote.
The third step in Google’s plan is providing technical support to organizations such as Internet Watch Foundation in the U.K. and the U.S. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
All of these steps are positive moves forward in the fight against child pornography, though they are very much geared to what Google and Microsoft can actually do: get the illicit images off search networks, which is the first step towards eliminate them altogether.
