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Mar252020Anna Borgström
COVID-19 presents an increased risk of child sexual exploitation
Due to the closing of schools as a result of the Corona virus, experts agree that children will have an increased online presence and will be at an inadvertent risk. This week the FBI warned parents, educators, caregivers, and children about the dangers of online sexual exploitation and signs of child abuse.
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Mar092020Guest Writer
By using technology to our advantage we can prevent crime and safeguard children
Digital development has enabled offenders to produce and share child sexual abuse material at a previously impossible scale. In addition, the last decade’s development of social media platforms and gaming platforms has enabled offenders to reach children directly, and abuse them over the internet without meeting them in person, adding a new dimension to this crime. Live-streaming services, examined closer in this report, has pushed this development further.
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Dec052019Anna Borgström
NetClean Report 2019
The NetClean Report 2019, the fifth of its kind is now available. This year the report is based on two different enquiries – one with law enforcement and one with businesses. The results, summarised in the report, help us understand the nature of child sexual abuse crime, how it is developing and what we must do to further ensure that we fight it as well as we can.
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Oct082019Anna Borgström
Children and the digital world – a meeting at the UN
Last week I was invited to speak at the UN Headquarters in New York, where the Working Group for Child Online Safety met for the launch of the new Broadband Commission report. The launch was hosted by Permanent Mission of Sweden, Childhood Foundation USA, Broadband Commission and End Violence Against Children.
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Aug132019Guest Writer
Cathal Delaney: Project “Trace an Object” – details help the police identify children
To aid the search for children Europol has set up project “Trace an Object”. It asks the public to view cropped parts of images to see if they recognise objects. This can help place the location of the abuse.
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Jul092019Anna Borgström
The Interpol World Conference
Last week I attended the third edition of the Interpol World conference in Singapore. It’s an event that brings together private and public sectors to foster collaboration to counter future security and policing challenges.
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Jun262019NetClean
PhotoDNA – Robust hashing that finds online child sexual abuse material
In a previous blog we looked at binary hashes. Now we look at PhotoDNA, a different type of hashing technology that calculates hash values based on the visual content of an image.
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May142019Christian Berg
Christian Berg: The main challenge is victim identification
in Business, TechnologyIn the NetClean Report 2018 we looked at a relatively new technology called Deepfakes; AI technology, which is used to swap one face for another in moving imagery. Here, Christian Berg, founder of NetClean, elaborates on challenges that this technology presents, and what might prevent it from being widely used in the production of child sexual abuse material.
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May032019Anna Borgström
Notes about the Broadband Commission Working Group
in Business, TechnologyLast week I was invited as a member of the Working Group for Child Online Safety, to attend the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development annual Spring meeting in Silicon Valley.
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May022019Guest Writer
We see limited use of cryptocurrencies as payment for child sexual abuse material
In our experience it is extremely rare that child sexual abuse material is sold on the internet. Offenders either search for the readily available free material, or they trade images and films with each other.
