Though many praised Google for stepping up its efforts to combat child pornography, multiple experts on the subject were quick to note that Google’s measures won’t do much to combat the problem.
Why? Dr. Joss Wright, a research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, had this to say on the matter.
“The first thing to remember is that Google is the search engine, not the Internet. The only thing that they are going to be able to block is things coming up in their search; they can’t take it down from the Internet. It is only going to work for the search engine, and when you get down it how many people are actually going to Google looking for child abuse images? If they are searching for it they will now just go to search engine A or B.”
Fair point, so what parts of the Internet should be targeted if one wants to shut the door on child porn trafficking? Here’s what former Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) chief executive Jim Gamble said.
“They don’t go on to Google to search for images. They go on to the dark corners of the Internet on peer-to-peer websites.”
Fortunately, P2P file sharing networks aren’t totally being ignored either. Outfits like the National Crime Agency and the Internet Watch Foundation will monitor such networks and work to curb the proliferation of child pornography there. While it’s not the same as being policed by a titan like Google. It’s a start though.
