Internet Child Sexual Abuse - Why Filter It?

What is it?

The Internet has become the central tool of communication worldwide and as such has enabled exponential growth in a more sobering and illegal industry exploiting children. Not only is content on the Internet largely unrestricted and unmonitored so that children are now regularly viewing inappropriate adult material, children are increasingly being sexually exploited to fuel the growth in child sexual abuse imagery (CSAI) which is marketed and sold on the Internet. Read more

Why are we concerned about it?

Every image of a child being sexually abused represents a horrific crime and the availability of them fuels the demand for more. Children are being harmed around the world, and people viewing these can get addicted to them and become abusers themselves. There is also the risk of web sites containing this material being accessed in error by users on the Internet and they can be seriously affected by viewing them. Read more here.

What is being done?

Authorities around the world are passing and amending laws to ensure that viewing and possessing these images are illegal, as well as enforcing takedown policies for hosting companies that host this material. Some governments are also passing laws to force Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to these sites hosted outside of the country. Many countries such as the UK and Canada now have the majority of their ISPs doing this on a voluntary basis. Other initiatives include the creation of hotlines to report these sites, and co-operation between law enforcement and payment organisations to track offenders.

How is Watchdog International involved?

Watchdog provides advice to governments and other organisations that are considering implementing the filtering of CSAI. Read more on Governments and NGOs. 

Watchdog provides filtering solutions for ISPs and carriers specifically designed to allow them to block CSAI web sites. The leading technology they use to do this is the NetClean Whitebox

Watchdog also provides filtered solutions for corporate networks using NetClean ProActive. This system compares the signatures of images found with those of known CSAI ones.