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Researchers in Cork develop technology that will identify child sexual abuse images online

Current systems mean specialists have to view “traumatic and distressing” material.

NEW TECHNOLOGY WILL use artificial intelligence to help police and find offenders who present the highest risk to the public, according to a UCC researcher who helped develop it.

The iCOP (Identifying and Catching Originators in P2P Networks) toolkit will automatically identify new and previously unseen images of child sexual abuse for police and help to reduce the volumes of materials specialists have to view in order to find children.

Maggie Brennan, a researcher and lecturer in the Schools of Applied Psychology and Criminology at UCC, worked on the research team with Sean Hammond of UCC’s School of Applied Psychology to develop the technology.

‘Traumatic’

“It’s common to seize computers and collections of child sexual abuse materials containing enormous volumes of illegal materials, terabytes of individual files. Having to view this material to find victims can be traumatic and distressing for the specialists working to find these children,” Brennan said.

In a statement released today, UCC said current systems rely on identifying known media. As a result, these tools are unable to assess the thousands of results they retrieve, whereas the iCOP toolkit uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to flag new and previously unknown child sexual abuse media.

The new approach combines automatic filename and media analysis techniques in an intelligent filtering module. The software can identify new criminal media and distinguish it from other media being shared, such as adult pornography.

Brennan said law enforcement “urgently need these kinds of supports to help them manage the volumes of cases they are being faced with – to find the children who are victimised in these images and videos, as well as those offenders who present the highest risk to the public”.

The research behind the technology was conducted in an international project founded by the European Commission by researchers at UCC, Lancaster University and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI).

At UCC, the team worked closely with international law enforcement specialists in online child sexual abuse investigation to understand their needs and develop a tool that allows them to find the most urgent cases for intervention.

Our role also involved developing a psychological profiling system to identify viewers of child sexual abuse images who may be at risk of committing hands-on abuse.

“We have been researching this topic with international law enforcement agencies like Interpol for many years, since the early 2000s. The volumes of child sexual abuse images and videos now in circulation is a real concern, and it can be overwhelming for law enforcement.

“Trying to find recent or ongoing cases of child sexual abuse is an absolute priority, but the sheer volume of illegal materials in circulation online makes this task incredibly difficult for the police,” Brennan said.

Hundreds of searches 

There are hundreds of searches for child abuse images every second worldwide, resulting in hundreds of thousands of child sexual abuse images and videos being shared every year.

The people who produce child sexual abuse media are often abusers themselves – the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children found that 16% of people who possess such media had directly and physically abused children.

“Identifying new child sexual abuse media is critical because it can indicate recent or ongoing child abuse,” Claudia Peersman, lead author of the study from Lancaster University said. “And because originators of such media can be hands-on abusers, their early detection and apprehension can safeguard their victims from further abuse.”

The researchers tested iCOP on real-life cases and police trialled the toolkit. It was highly accurate, with an error rate of only 7.9% for images and 4.3% for videos.

Read: Elderly woman spends 15 hours on hospital trolley

Read: Concern for man missing from Cork since last Friday

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7 Comments
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    Mute pat seery
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    May 2nd 2017, 8:06 AM

    Great work by the rescue services let’s hope that the families of. RESCUE 116 will have closure very soon

    220
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    Mute R2BApp
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    May 2nd 2017, 7:47 AM

    We’ve created an app, R2B, for scenarios like this. It’s free to download so no excuses…
    http://r2bapp.com

    188
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    Mute Thosj Carroll
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    May 2nd 2017, 10:42 AM

    30 hrs in sea and managed to survive! Amazing surfer from Ireland….

    91
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    Mute Free comment ratings
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    May 2nd 2017, 1:21 PM

    @Thosj Carroll: Pretty sure he was British.

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    Mute Free comment ratings
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    May 2nd 2017, 7:07 PM

    @Christopher Treacy: I’m not sure where is was from but I knew he wasn’t Irish all right.

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    Mute Niallers
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    May 2nd 2017, 4:13 PM

    30 hrs at sea. Crikey, I dipped my feet in the ocean yesterday and they went red with the cold after a couple of minutes.. Lucky man.

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    Mute xor
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    May 2nd 2017, 10:18 AM

    Not very bright going out on his own!

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    Mute Ger Healy
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    May 2nd 2017, 10:52 AM

    @xor: Oh shut up! I was waiting for the first condescending statement from a know it all, whose only contact with the sea is probably paddling with your shoes off.
    Did you not read the post, he was complimented by the coastguard for being prepared.

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    Mute xor
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    May 2nd 2017, 1:57 PM

    @Ger Healy: I am looking at the sea typing this, mr know it all yourself. It is SILLY to go out on your own. Shows what you know about the sea!

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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    May 2nd 2017, 5:23 PM

    @xor: why? Sure aren’t you watching?

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    Mute Paul Devlin
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    May 2nd 2017, 11:39 AM

    Doubt he was off the ‘Belfast coast’. The what? Anyhow, well done to the rescue crews!

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    Mute Colin Watters
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    May 2nd 2017, 3:16 PM

    @Paul Devlin: He was, but he started off on the Scottish coast! Think he was from Glasgow….

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    Mute Paul Devlin
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    May 2nd 2017, 4:18 PM

    @Colin Watters: completely missed the point there, Colin. Insofar as Belfast could be described as having a coast (ie where the Lagan enters Belfast Lough), he was nowhere near it. It’s just using the term Belfast coast sounds so ridiculous to anyone from the city. Anyhow he was about 40+ miles up north Antrim direction. Complete ignorance on the party of the journo

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    Mute Daithí Uí Ciarmhic
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    May 2nd 2017, 3:30 PM

    Glaswegian surfer just doesn’t sound cool sure it doesn’t

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    Mute Brendan McLaughlin
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    May 2nd 2017, 4:55 PM

    Just goes to prove that being well tanked up on deep fried marsbars and Buckfast can save your life.
    I wonder if he had insurance for his surfing adventure across the sea – just in case anything went wrong and he needed to have a major search and rescue operation to pay for.
    Just saying like.

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    Mute eileen boles
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    May 2nd 2017, 5:31 PM

    @Brendan McLaughlin: dont think he went out with the intention of needing to be rescued epec. as he went out on his own jus sayin!

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    Mute Brendan McLaughlin
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    May 2nd 2017, 5:57 PM

    @eileen boles: Well if you don’t think it then thats how it was. Sorry if I had a thought of my own.
    Just saying like.

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    Mute Giovanni Casermaggio
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    May 2nd 2017, 5:12 PM

    Unbelievable 32 hours in the cold water and still alive. .

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    Mute Minom Pnom
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    May 2nd 2017, 6:07 PM

    He was on his board I’d say most of the time

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    Mute Paul Culligan
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    May 2nd 2017, 6:01 PM

    Did they retreive the Surfboard? Great conversational piece for the local boozer.

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    Mute Lovely weather
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    May 2nd 2017, 4:55 PM
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    Mute Ger
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    May 2nd 2017, 4:42 PM

    Amazing that he survived! That’s a book waiting to be written.

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    Mute Niallers
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    May 2nd 2017, 4:50 PM

    @Ger: Nah. If he chewed his arm off maybe.

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    Mute Leroy
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    May 2nd 2017, 10:35 PM

    I’d say he’s brand loyal to that surfboard company for the rest of his life.

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    Mute Avina Laaf
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    May 2nd 2017, 11:43 PM

    @Leroy:
    Should be to the wetsuit company! If they had any sense they’d sign him up for an ad campaign ASAP.

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