Listen to 45 second CBS News Eye on Tech segment
The most horrific side of the online world is the sexual exploitation of children, including adults who prey on vulnerable children in chat rooms and other online forums.
I’ve been involved in the fight against this exploitation for decades, having served for more than 20 years on the board of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and as co-founder of ConnectSafely.org. In my time working on these issues I’ve seen numerous tools developed to help fight this scourge and now, thanks to Microsoft, The Meet Group, Roblox, Kik and Thorn, there is a “grooming detection technique, code name “Project Artemis,” by which online predators attempting to lure children for sexual purposes can be detected,” according to a blog post from Microsoft.
The technique, which is built on a Microsoft patent, “evaluates and ‘rates’ conversation characteristics and assigns an overall probability rating” that can determine whether an online conversation should be flagged for review by human moderators.” When possible cases of online exploitation of children are detected, data can be sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which will investigate and refer to law enforcement if appropriate. The tool was also built in collaboration with ECPAT International, INHOPE and the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF).