19 Nov 2013

Blocking of child abuse images applauded

10:21 pm on 19 November 2013

New Zealand's Internal Affairs Department is applauding a move by Google and Microsoft to block online searches for child abuse images and videos.

The internet search engines say about 100,000 search terms will now fail to produce results, hitting home the message that such imagery is illegal.

Some 380 prosecutions have been made for possession of child sex abuse-related images since the department's censorship compliance unit was set up in 1996.

Unit team leader Jon Peacock says Google and Microsoft's stance will strengthen their ability to catch people exploiting children.

"It's not something that we can arrest or prosecute our way out of and it really needs an overall response from industry, from law enforcement, from care providers and educators - all the way through society - to try and eradicate this problem from the internet.

Child Alert, an international organisation fighting internet child pornography, agrees it's a great move - but rather late.

A crack-down on child porn was announced this week at an internet safety summit in London, and after a plea by British Prime Minister David Cameron in July for internet firms to do more to stop access to illegal images.

The New Zealand arm of Child Alert says this doesn't mean the end of internet child porn. Director Alan Bell says people who search for child sex abuse images are clever and while it will disrupt their activity, there are ways around blocks and filters.

Mr Bell says the ability by search engines to block graphic abuse images will unfortunately not stop child porn through peer-to-peer networks or live streaming.