Tech Firms Receive Extra Tools And Instructions To Protect The Internet Against Child Abuse

It can be stated without any hesitation that child abuse is a growing concern in today’s fast-paced digital world. And it’s no wonder why more pressure and scrutiny is being placed on leading tech firms to find a solution.

The UK government is watching the internet closely and that’s why it’s sharing how concerning the entire situation has become. Therefore, tech giants are being equipped with extra tools to assist them in finding, preventing, and even highlighting child abuse and related exploitations across the web.

These new steps will reportedly be a part of a new bill related to online safety, whose ultimate goal is to help guard the internet.

In case tech firms have trouble complying with such maneuvers or fail to do so, Ofcom is going to have the chance to set up huge fines that could go up to 18 million pounds. You can better see it as nearly 10% of a firm’s global yearly turnover, depending on which amount tends to be higher.

But what tools are being allotted and will they be sufficient enough to get rid of child abuse graphics and exploitative images on the web? Another major concern is related to the end to end encryption, which is seen commonly on WhatsApp. Would that be affected too?

Well, according to sources from the UK Government, the new tools are created to help work their way around secure end-to-end encryptions. Therefore, they’ll be able to detect pictures related to abuse without invading the privacy of users.

But that doesn’t mean the debate surrounding privacy and safety for users won’t delve into a whole new round of talk and arguments.

Meanwhile, a leading professor from the University of Surrey says detecting such explicit images or related text won’t be easy when you’re dealing with unencrypted data. The only way to effectively tackle such matters would be to analyze data that has been decrypted.

On the other hand, there is much talk about the latest scanning technologies like client-side scanning. These have the power to quickly scan images and texts before they’re sent out, helping to eliminate any explicit content on the way.

But that can only be possible if Ofcom gets a hold of such technology and improves the current scanning technology it has. See, the matter is a little complex if you ask us. The government needs to be involved in such calls so that technical feasibility can arise for all to combat such challenges.

There’s also a fear of how such technology could be misused. Clearly, the magnitude of the problem is huge and there needs to be a solution soon.


H/T: TG

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