FBI: FBI Warns of Child Sexual Abuse Material Being Displayed During Zoom Meetings. “The COVID-19 crisis has caused many organizations and schools to conduct virtual meetings/events, some of which are open to the public. Additionally, links to many virtual events are being shared online, resulting in a lack of vetting of approved participants. During the last few months, the FBI has received more than 195 reports of incidents throughout the United States and in other countries in which a Zoom participant was able to broadcast a video depicting child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The FBI considers this activity to be a violent crime, as every time child sexual abuse material is viewed, the depicted child is re-victimized. Furthermore, anyone who inadvertently sees child sexual abuse material depicted during a virtual event is potentially a victim as well.”
child abuse
The Register: Don’t be fooled, experts warn, America’s anti-child-abuse EARN IT Act could burn encryption to the ground
The Register: Don’t be fooled, experts warn, America’s anti-child-abuse EARN IT Act could burn encryption to the ground . “On Thursday, a bipartisan group of US senators introduced legislation with the ostensible purpose of combating child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online – at the apparent cost of encryption.”
New York Times: U.S. to Hold Tech Firms Accountable for Spread of Child Sex Abuse Imagery
New York Times: U.S. to Hold Tech Firms Accountable for Spread of Child Sex Abuse Imagery. “Legislation announced on Thursday aimed at curbing the spread of online child sexual abuse imagery would take the extraordinary step of removing legal protections for tech companies that fail to police the illegal content. A separate, international initiative that was also announced takes a softer approach, getting the industry to voluntarily embrace standards for combating the material.”
The Next Web: This AI needs your help to identify child abusers by their hands
The Next Web: This AI needs your help to identify child abusers by their hands. “The research team has appealed to the public for help with the project. They want anyone over the age of 18 to upload photos of their hands through a new smartphone app. The images will then be added to a database that’s used to develop the hand comparison algorithms. The researchers say they need more than 5,000 images to prove beyond a reasonable doubt whether our hands are truly unique. They promise that everyone who participates will remain anonymous. The images will never shared with external agencies, and will be destroyed at the end of the project.”
New York Times: Tech Companies Detect a Surge in Online Videos of Child Sexual Abuse
New York Times: Tech Companies Detect a Surge in Online Videos of Child Sexual Abuse. “The number of reported photos, videos and other materials related to online child sexual abuse grew by more than 50 percent last year, an indication that many of the world’s biggest technology platforms remain infested with the illegal content.”
ProPublica: We Assembled the Only Nationwide Database of Priests Deemed Credibly Accused of Abuse. Here’s How.
ProPublica: We Assembled the Only Nationwide Database of Priests Deemed Credibly Accused of Abuse. Here’s How. . “ProPublica published an interactive database on Tuesday that lets users search for clergy who have been listed as credibly accused of sexual abuse in reports released by Catholic dioceses and religious orders. It is, as of publication, the only nationwide database of official disclosures. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the religious leaders’ national membership organization, does not publicly release any centralized, countrywide collection of clergy members who have been credibly accused of sexual assault.”
MIT Technology Review: Microsoft has created a tool to find pedophiles in online chats
MIT Technology Review: Microsoft has created a tool to find pedophiles in online chats. “Microsoft has created an automated system to detect sexual predators trying to groom children online. The tool, code-named Project Artemis, is designed to spot patterns of communication in conversations.”
