Ride the Lightning
Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
Child Porn Filtering at the ISP Level
July 18, 2012
I'm happy to share this guest post from colleagues Monique Ferraro of Technology Forensics, LLC and Daniel Libby of Digital Forensics, Inc.
Our friend and RTL Sharon Nelson reported on Monday in Ride the Lightning that heavyweight ISPs have come together to form the Center for Copyright Information – an ISP level effort that will filter copyright protected material. Why not block child pornography at the ISP level in the same way, using the same technology and collaborative effort? Federal law already requires Internet service providers to report child pornography when they identify it. Information should flow both ways- from the ISPs to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to be distributed to law enforcement agencies for investigation and back to ISPs once the images are validated by law enforcement as actual minors. The NCMEC maintains an enormous database of hash values that correspond to ‘identified minors.’ These images could be blocked from distribution at the ISP level and in so doing save the children depicted in the images the continued victimization they experience every time they are distributed and viewed.
Blocking the images will cut down the number of images in circulation, leaving only new images for law enforcement to investigate. That way, resources can be directed toward newly created child abuse images. The more recently created the images, the more at risk the child and the more likely it is that the child is still being victimized. If law enforcement can focus efforts on recently created images instead of investigating distribution and possession of older ones, they have a greater chance of preventing future harm.
If copyright infringement can inspire collaboration among ISPs, the cause of protecting children should redouble their efforts. Given that the hash database already exists, the ISPs are collaborating in the copyright effort and have apparently developed the technology - filtering the known images should be a snap. To us, this is a win for everyone.
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