The AI tool detects images of child abuse with 99% accuracy
Abstract
Safer, an AI-driven software, claims to detect images of child abuse with about 99% accuracy. The software was developed by Thorn, a non-profit, to help businesses without internal filtering systems detect and remove such images.
According to the UK Internet Watch Foundation, child abuse images spiked 50% during COVID-19. For 11 weeks starting March 23, Its hotline recorded 44,809 images, compared with 29,698 in the same period last year. Most of these pictures are published by children, many of whom are forced to publish them.
One of Thorn’s biggest users to date is the photo-sharing site Flickr. Flickr, using Safer, found an image of child abuse on its platform, and a law enforcement investigation led to the rescue of 21 abused children between the ages of 18 months and 14 years and the arrest of their abusers.
Analysis
In recent years, incidents of violence against children have occurred frequently. Every day around the globe, children live with physical, mental and sexual violence, abuse, neglect and abandonment. The World Health Organization estimates that about 40 million children under the age of 15 are abused and neglected worldwide. Child abuse has become a global problem. Studies have shown that,Violence can affect children’s physical and mental health, cause permanent damage to their learning and social abilities, affect their healthy development and increase the probability of intergenerational transmission of violence. The protection of children needs to be widely valued by all sectors of society.
There are a large number of pictures and videos of child abuse circulating on the Internet, and it is difficult to effectively and timely prevent violence against children through manual retrieval. Artificial intelligence has a natural advantage in processing massive image data, which can help the network platform to quickly carry out targeted image/video retrieval.It forms real-time linkage with government law enforcement agencies and child abuse prevention and control agencies to strangle violence at the first time and protect children from violence.
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