From the Winnipeg Free Press–A tech program that detects and flags online images and videos of child sex abuse in an effort to get the files removed from the web has been a “life raft for victims.”
The web-crawling program, dubbed Project Arachnid, was created by the Winnipeg-based non-profit Canadian Centre for Child Protection in 2017. It partners with other child protection organizations across the world.
The centre said Wednesday the program has flagged and tried to take action to scrub the internet of nearly 50 million images and videos of child sex abuse — referred to in law as child pornography — in the eight years since it began operating. Many of the files may be the same images or videos uploaded in multiple locations.