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UK Authorities Launching Massive Child Abuse Database

mrspoonsi sends news that "Data taken from tens of millions of child abuse photos and videos will shortly be used as part of a new police system to aid investigations into suspected pedophiles across the UK." The Child Abuse Image Database (CAID) will be available to authorities starting December 11th. It's been populated with data seized in earlier investigations. The database assigns a hash to each photograph, so when a new drive full of illegal images is confiscated, it can immediately be plugged in and quickly scanned to see if there are any matches. It will also catalog GPS coordinates from Exif data.

The purpose of CAID is to eliminate the duplication of effort when investigating these photos. Often when storage drives are seized, they contain thousands or millions of images, and dozens of different police departments could end up unknowingly investigating the same victims. Law enforcement liaison officer Johann Hofmann said, "We're looking at 70, 80, up to 90% work load reduction. We're seeing investigations being reduced from months to days."

150 comments

  1. See comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Torrent plox?

    1. Re: See comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WtF... It's all about the children.

    2. Re:See comment by rioki · · Score: 1

      +1 Funny

    3. Re: See comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe they'll figure out what's wrong with putting semi-nude 14 year old girls on the inside page of Englands Newspapers.
      Nah, probably just continue plooking little boys. Those English, jeez...

    4. Re: See comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly :) Abused children are all I think of while beating off.

  2. Sure right... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    For the protection of the children you see, they should have a huge government database of file hashes they deem illegal. This year it's for the children, next year it's for enemy's of the state. You wait, you will see...

    Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.

    1. Re:Sure right... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I used to do this work, I worked for a digital forensics contractor for a number of years in the UK. I had to get out because I felt like I was beginning to be a character in a George Orwell novel, especially when the "extreme images" legislation started to be mooted. I created a central hash database for our lab using some software out of an Ontario police agency called C4P, it was most useful for eliminating what we called "ignorable" images but I was shocked at the images some of my fellow analysts deemed to be illegal. I became increasingly disenchanted with the work and it seems that the recent news out of the UK regarding increased censorship has proven my instinct to be well founded. It's ironic that Brits tend to throw the whole "puritanical" label at Americans when this sort of thing is happening. Just for the record I don't endorse the production or consumption of child abuse images, having seen a good many in my former professional life I can assure you they are hideous.

  3. Catching up with USA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I thought the USA already did this and shared the hashes with companies so they can automatically flag things. De we actually not share our list of hashes? Have we finally uncovered something privacy related the government doesn't share?

  4. Holy crap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let's throw a fucking parade, everyone. The police have discovered a use for technology that makes their work easier and doesn't sound like it will erode any of our civil liberties.

    1. Re: Holy crap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What do you mean? The police wants a database of everyone and what everyone is currently doing. From it, decisions about what should be a crime can be made in order to keep "problems" out of the way from people in power.

  5. Nice attempt to look like they care by reemul · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They're worried about DUPLICATION of effort?!? How about putting in some damn effort first. More than a decade and over 1000 girls in just one damn city. All the software tools in the world won't help if you turn them away at the station or refuse to do any of the work for fear of hurting feelings. Spend less on computers and more on prosecutions for those cops who let those girls suffer.

    --
    You're just jealous 'cuz the voices talk to *me*
    1. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      More than a decade and over 1000 girls in just one damn city.

      This sentence is completely meaningless. Do you even cite, bro?

      Spend less on computers and more on prosecutions for those cops who let those girls suffer.

      Hrm ... let's see ... do we spend the money on a one-time cost which reduces workload by 90% ... OR do we spend the money on the start of a recurring cost to investigate and prosecute a small subset who have little meaningful impact on the end result.

      Yeah, no, totally, your idea rocks.

    2. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by whoever57 · · Score: 4, Informative

      This sentence is completely meaningless. Do you even cite, bro?

      Anyone who reads UK newspapers will know what the GP is talking about. This isn't Wikipedia, but here you go

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    3. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      Damn. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Target the perps properly, you're racist. Put on the kidd gloves and you don't care about the poor children. No-win situation.

    4. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by Mashiki · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There is a win-win situation. Target the perps, and tell the social-justice crowd to shove it up their pie hole along with the muslims that will come screaming out of the woodwork crying that it's racist. Not rocket surgery, not by a long shot. The problem isn't so much that it happened, but that it was allowed to happen. And that it's happened more then once. Europe has a serious problem with problems like this, so does their media.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    5. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "prosecutions for those cops who let those girls suffer."

      and bring back Elliot Stabler and promote Munch and put him in charge of the squad.

    6. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      More than a decade and over 1000 girls in just one damn city.

      This sentence is completely meaningless. Do you even cite, bro?

      He is referring to the Rotherham sex abuse scandal. But I suggest you be very skeptical about the "over 1000 girls" part. The actual number of victims that have been confirmed is ... seven ... by five different perpetrators. The scandal has a close resemblance to both the Salem witch trials, and the American satanic ritual abuse (SRA) scandal of the 1980s. SRA was once estimated to involve "millions" of victims, but in hindsight, the number of victims is now believed to have been zero. The Rotherham scandal has more substance than that, but likely not near enough to justify the current hysteria. It has all the best ingredients for a mass panic, with a hidden army of dark skinned men raping young innocent white British girls, and many people with a vested interest in exaggerating it: Journalists wanting to sell tabloids, police wanting budget increases, politicians wanting to be outraged about something, etc.

    7. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by jabuzz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The number seven comes from what the Crown Prosecution Service have chosen to prosecute and got convictions for. They have many more on file. Some will be where the victim is unwilling to give evidence in court, or the CPS believe would not make a good witness on the stand. The job of the CPS is to make sure the bastards rot in jail, this does not necessarily correspond to prosecuting all possible cases of abuse.

      It is quite clear that the abuse was wide spread in Rotherham and worse was not confined to Rotherham either. There have also been very similar cases in Derby, Oxford, Bristol and Telford. All involving gangs of majority Muslim background perpetrators sexually abusing and trafficking mainly white girls.

    8. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Problem is, where I suspect many States are directly or indirectly covertly posting popular forums, when I see posts like this, I actually wonder if this is real, or if it is a State sponsored agent.

    9. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      They're worried about DUPLICATION of effort?!? How about putting in some damn effort first. More than a decade and over 1000 girls in just one damn city.

      The cops are a symptom, not the cause of ills in our society. We have to fix what's broken in our basic social systems before this problem is going to go away. All the cops can hope to do is catch offenders after the fact.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    10. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The article claims that the majority of the abusers were "asian". It doesn't say muslim.

      Sadly, society is now so far gone into madness that I find myself wondering whether that is a politically correct way of avoiding to say "muslim" or "arab". The middle east is, after all, technically part of Asia. That would be highly ironic; an article exposing how political correctness can go awry itself being politically correct.

    11. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      The muslim angle is just a distraction. The real problem is that when the girls or people around them did complain the police did nothing. They seemed to feel that because many of the girls were from poor or troubled backgrounds that they were probably consenting or wouldn't be convincing as witnesses in court anyway, so just allowed the abuse to continue.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    12. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      The article claims that the majority of the abusers were "asian". It doesn't say muslim.

      Here's the nasty bit, that's the codeword for muslim in most european countries. If they're from anywhere else, they'll actually be listed from a particular country, and of course once you start viewing the court records you find that they're exceptionally devout. It's a serious problem, and until they can dig their heads out of their backside they're simply dooming themselves.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    13. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Kid gloves" strikes me as a particularly unfortunate choice of words in this case...

    14. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      The muslim angle is just a distraction. The real problem is that when the girls or people around them did complain the police did nothing.

      Really it's not. They(police, social services, etc.,) didn't do anything for fear of being labeled racists. There's plenty of proof of that if you go read the articles when it started out. Political correctness run amok is the problem.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    15. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you not read 1984? In airstrip one, pornography is illegal, but produced for mass consumption by the government.for the Proles to distract them for the endless wars. Why do you think it hasn't been shut down? They're just following Orwell's manual.

    16. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What is really scary for anyone who values actually human rights is what will happen if the police and politicians don't straighten up. White people will reach a breaking point. I don't know exactly what they will do but it will not be pretty.Think 2nd holocaust type deal only imagine fathers and mothers, hell people who grow-up knowing and being the people who were raped. It will probably make the holocaust look PC in comparison. The Muslims who are not participating in this need to understand that this is human nature and when people reach a breaking point they will let god sort out the good from the bad. So if Muslims aren't seen as helping to end this horror, they will suffer the same fate as those directly involved.

      We should also ask our selves what we are doing importing large numbers of people from countries where this is a far too common practice, especially when we can't find them legitimate jobs do already high unemployment. More unskilled workers doesn't equal lower unemployment numbers.

    17. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by oldmac31310 · · Score: 1

      pie hole is your mouth, not your anus. Just thought you should know, rocket surgeon. What is it with the mega STOOPID bigotry and racism on slashdot these days?

      --
      http://www.acetonestudio.com
    18. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by oldmac31310 · · Score: 0

      Refreshing to read something from you that is moderate and sensible. Bravo! Keep it up!

      --
      http://www.acetonestudio.com
    19. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by CanHasDIY · · Score: 1

      The muslim angle is just a distraction. The real problem is that when the girls or people around them did complain the police did nothing.

      Really it's not. They(police, social services, etc.,) didn't do anything for fear of being labeled racists.

      Doesn't seem to slow down US cops and social workers...

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
    20. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by whoever57 · · Score: 1

      Really it's not. They(police, social services, etc.,) didn't do anything for fear of being labeled racists.

      And the reason they did nothing about Cyril Smith? Would that be racism also?

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    21. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      pie hole is your mouth, not your anus. Just thought you should know, rocket surgeon. What is it with the mega STOOPID bigotry and racism on slashdot these days?

      Oh look, I'm guessing it's a white, progressive male, that doesn't like the fact that "something happened" to a particular segment of society, and when facts come to light that the same segment of society is confronted with it--they immediately come screaming out of the woodwork crying racism. You know it's not the first time that this has happened in the UK, or even Europe. It's simply the largest. There were at least 15 cases last year in the UK alone where muslims were arrested operating underage prostitution rings.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    22. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      And the reason they did nothing about Cyril Smith? Would that be racism also?

      That would be "friends" the UK though has shifted in the last 15 years and bending backwards for the minority element. Wonder why so many people from the UK are fleeing to Canada and Australia.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    23. Re:Nice attempt to look like they care by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      . But I suggest you be very skeptical about the "over 1000 girls" part. The actual number of victims that have been confirmed is ... seven ... by five different perpetrators. The scandal has a close resemblance to both the Salem witch trials ...

      Yeah, that was also my take on it, just from the bit of reading I did on it. Kept seeing that "thousands" claim but absolutely no evidence for anything even close to that number. Thanks for the confirmation.

  6. Re:Muslim Men by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just add all Muslim men by default. they seem to treat women like cattle, including little girls.

    Muhammed was also a pedophile.

  7. Leave Them Kids Alone by mentil · · Score: 2

    Maybe they should, you know, NOT launch massive amounts of child abuse, inflicted by database. That sounds pretty bad.
    Wait, maybe I parsed this wrong.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
  8. Re:Muslim Men by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just add all Muslim men by default. they seem to treat women like cattle, including little girls.

    Muhammed was also a pedophile.

    So was Jesus.

  9. "suspected pedophile" by arth1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have a small problem with the phrasing "suspected pedophile". It propagates the view that being a pedophile is a crime, not that child abuse is a crime.

    Would they have a database of people "suspected of having high testosterone levels" too?

    The risk of innocents being caught in a dragnet is, in my opinion, not justified by the heinousness of abuse. A pedophile (or a father, a much higher risk group) who is innocent is just as innocent as a child. And someone who is guilty is just as guilty whether they're a pedophile or not.

    A child, by the way, is a suspected future drug criminal with a quite high risk. Better register all children as suspects too.

    Anyhow, there's a technical solution to every technical problem. In this case, a viewer that changes one pixel subtly every time an image is viewed would make hashes like this useless.

    1. Re:"suspected pedophile" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Break down the images in blocks, create a profile of the entire image based on it's blocks and then grade images based on how many blocks fit a given profile.

      Or just use what Google has.

    2. Re:"suspected pedophile" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All forums, regardless of their subject, say 'filesharing', have morons (here: pedos), clamoring for moar new content.
      That incentivizes and causes producers (here: pedo rapists) to produce that new content (aka: rape kids on tape).
      No, being a pedo phile is NOT a crime. But the actions of pedos on their forums, that leads to rape, are criminally dispicable aka: criminal conspirators. Pedos apparently now pay for rape to occur on camera to share. That's fucked up.
      Thus if any pedo is caught with old CP, no problem, not like there isn't petabytes of that shit out there already.
      But if their drives have mail/chats of them asking for moar new 'material', jail them all to hell.

      BTW, all children are registered at birth, you asked for big brother, you got big brother.
      And you still go to jail with your edited pixels.

    3. Re:"suspected pedophile" by BitterOak · · Score: 1

      Anyhow, there's a technical solution to every technical problem. In this case, a viewer that changes one pixel subtly every time an image is viewed would make hashes like this useless.

      While I agree with most of what you say up to that point, I am a bit puzzled by your last paragraph. What "problem" is being solved by your "solution" exactly?

      --
      If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
    4. Re:"suspected pedophile" by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      I'm guessing it'll be a perceptual hash. Most likely Microsoft's PhotoDNA, because it's been used by law enforcement before.

    5. Re:"suspected pedophile" by arth1 · · Score: 2

      Break down the images in blocks, create a profile of the entire image based on it's blocks and then grade images based on how many blocks fit a given profile.

      Yes, and that turns it into an arms race. Any technological fingerprinting can be defeated.

      The error here is trying to find a technological solution to a sociological problem.

      And, of course, the froth-at-the-mouth desire to punish "pedophiles" instead of reducing child abuse. I think that is spending good money and cops that would be better spent on preventative work. To me, saving one child from being abused is worth a lot more than punishing a thousand people who merely lust after children.

    6. Re:"suspected pedophile" by arth1 · · Score: 1

      While I agree with most of what you say up to that point, I am a bit puzzled by your last paragraph. What "problem" is being solved by your "solution" exactly?

      The problem is the belief that hashes or other fingerprinting techniques is a silver bullet, infallible. It isn't. You need a human to actually look at the pictures, and until the politicians who control the police understands that, redirecting resources this way is only going to harm their cause.
      They may catch more of the minor crimes, like someone looking at pics because he or she is curious and mildly titillated, but it won't stop the tech savvy distributors and technologically advanced networks.

      I see that as a problem - it will surely lead to more John Does who look at pictures being arrested, but I fear it will lead to fewer actual perpetrators who take and distribute the pictures from being caught. In a technological arms race, police will seldom have the upper hand.

    7. Re:"suspected pedophile" by arth1 · · Score: 1

      The problem with perceptual hashes is that the false positive rate is way higher.
      That's not a good thing when dealing with something like CP, where mere allegations or investigations can ruin a person's life, even if innocent, because no-one is going to believe that there was smoke without fire.

    8. Re:"suspected pedophile" by droptone · · Score: 2

      I think that is spending good money and cops that would be better spent on preventative work.

      Hell, despite the fact that I share the Slashdot hivemind's distaste for police officers, if it reduces the mind-boggling trauma that surely comes from repeatedly looking at child porn, then it's worth it.

      That's got to be immensely psychologically damaging.

      --
      Every post I make begins with the assumption P=~P.
    9. Re:"suspected pedophile" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But you will still arrive at a situation where hashes will collide.

      You will still arrive at a situation where say, half an image might be positive, and they will still go in arms blazing.

      Bam, innocent persons life ruined at the chance of finding those dirty damned pedos totally not raping children. Unlike all those rapists out there actually raping children and filming it.

      I seriously hope they are actually going to use such things in attempt to go after those producing and distributing.
      If they go after the morons downloading random crap from 4chan or even google, it is going to be a huge waste of resources and children will still be getting raped and no problems will have been solved.

      WORSE, the instant this person, or persons, ends up being a minority, they will shy away from attacking them. Like the have done before.
      This whole bullshit political correctness needs to fuck off. It has led to innocent people being raped in the thousands. Brutally raped at that.
      I swear if this PC nonsense gets as bad as it is in America, I'm fucking leaving this country.

    10. Re:"suspected pedophile" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Personally, I wouldn't even trust the police with this.

      It'll wind up being like Operation Ore all over again.

    11. Re:"suspected pedophile" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have a small problem with the phrasing "suspected pedophile". It propagates the view that being a pedophile is a crime, not that child abuse is a crime.

      In short: actions should be punished, not desires/tendencies.

    12. Re:"suspected pedophile" by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Being a paedophile is a crime in the UK. For example, you can produce hand drawn images or written stories about paedophilia and be convicted of a crime for doing it. There is no victim, only your own imagination was involved. Expressing certain thoughts and ideas is a crime in the UK.

      When they claim that there are "tens of millions" of images in this database, I wonder how many are of victims and how many are cartoons found on 4chan or scans of children's clothes catalogues and that sort of thing. Yes, clothes catalogues are illegal if kept for the purposes of sexual gratification.

      Also, they claim to use more than just images hashes. They say facial recognition and the ability to handle images that have been scaled, mirrored or otherwise adjusted.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    13. Re:"suspected pedophile" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On facial recognition, i think a database of school photos and yearbook pictures should be created. Then whenever a new image is found you can scan that data base for a listing of the school the exploited child goes to. This catches the pedophiles that are using tor or other software to hide their identity. See a new picture posted just scan it through database and have an address of an exploited child easily by asking contact information of the school the child goes to.

      THis i think would be a great way t catch new pedophiles and safe the chidren. If you support this idea please contact your congress man and see if we can get this facial recognition software out to the missing and exploited children organization

    14. Re:"suspected pedophile" by Cederic · · Score: 1

      Being a paedophile is a crime in the UK. For example, you can produce hand drawn images or written stories about paedophilia and be convicted of a crime for doing it

      Being a paedophile is not a crime in the UK. Actions resulting from it are.

      Hand drawn images are illegal, and it's fucking insane. I'm tempted to create a website that shows you an image of a stick man and stick woman shagging, with the label "Man fucking woman". Add a button that changes the word 'woman' to '12 year old girl' and anybody clicking that button will break the law by producing what in the UK is legally defined as child pornography.

      I don't however believe that written stories are illegal in the UK. Apparently they are in Australia, but not to my knowledge in the UK.

    15. Re:"suspected pedophile" by Falos · · Score: 1

      > if their drives have mail/chats of them asking for moar new 'material'
      This isn't "guilty of being pedo", it'll be Conspiracy (To Commit) or somesuch. Yes, it's going to be illegal. Yes, we have a crime for it. No, the crime is not "suspected pedo"

      There's a fair bit of confusing rambling about forums I don't quite follow. Still pretty sure the irony of posting them in this forum will persist, though.

    16. Re:"suspected pedophile" by Carnildo · · Score: 1

      When they claim that there are "tens of millions" of images in this database, I wonder how many are of victims and how many are cartoons found on 4chan or scans of children's clothes catalogues and that sort of thing.

      I want to know how many are of teenagers. Reportedly the single largest source of child pornography these days is teenagers with cell-phone cameras taking steamy self-portraits.

      --
      "They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
    17. Re:"suspected pedophile" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sure there are some police officers this is true for, but there are others who love the job, and some who contributed.

  10. Secondary application: tracking pedophiles. by mmell · · Score: 1

    Some of the files in question may have been subject to change as they were moved from host to host, an analog to mutations in virii. By analyzing the 'mutations' in the image files, it may be possible to gain some insight into the paths the various iterations of the same image took before being found by law enforcement.

    1. Re:Secondary application: tracking pedophiles. by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      Perceptual hash.

    2. Re:Secondary application: tracking pedophiles. by rioki · · Score: 1

      Didn't Google offer their ContentID technology for this a few years past? If you take something like that, the actual file hash is irrelevant, you take a "hash" of the content not the bits that make up the file. This mostly solves transcoding and watermarking.

  11. Re:Muslim Men by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    the Muhammad story has sources.

    What's your source for any bride of Jesus, let alone a child?

  12. Opis Dei by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    are they gonna put all these members of this cult in it.

    the prime minister of canada is a member of it as well.....

    1. Re:Opis Dei by oldmac31310 · · Score: 1

      Opus Dei. OPUS. Idiot.

      --
      http://www.acetonestudio.com
  13. Stop and Search by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The London MET declared the whole of London a possible terrorist zone so that it can use random stop and search powers to stop and search anyone it likes. Trouble is, they don't catch terrorists, mostly they search blacks and don't find an excuse to arrest them.

    In Surrey its so bad now, coppers take your fingerprints in the street under threat that if you disobey they'll arrest you for something.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2m0T9zQW0Q

    This is just a way they can justify doing a search on any media you have. In practise this box will catalogue everything, not just the pedo images they claim, and will be used for the every expanding police state.

    1. Re:Stop and Search by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you mean there are niggers in the uk? thought it was only ragheads and whiteys with bad teeth up there.

  14. Better Headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "UK Authorities Assembling World's Largest Collection of Child Porn"

  15. misuse of hash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hopefully they're being at least somewhat smart computing multiple hashes and recording size and resolution of each image.
    Because a single hash does not uniquely identify a file, hashes were never designed to perform this role. I imagine this may lead to a few problems due to lazy police running the tool over innocent images then over-reacting on a hash collision.

  16. Best trolling tool evar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I'm more worried about the potential abuse this could cause. Someone takes a child abuse photo, attaches some EXIF data to it pointing to a person they don't like, then uploads it anonymously somewhere. Pretty soon the police are beating someone's door down, stealing all of their computers, and otherwise making their life a living hell.

  17. Nooo by Engeekneer · · Score: 1

    My first thought was "Good, they seem to have a problem with it in the authorities."

    My second thought "Crap, they mean a local databse of all that stuff. What are they going to do, copy it off an MP's hard drive?"

    1. Re:Nooo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The UK's track record of leaking data might bring enough of the images into the wild again so that pedophiles don't need new victims. I bet that this isn't what they intended, but the way it will go.

  18. Re: Muslim Men by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I didn't know. That is fucked up.

  19. Think of the children!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Awkward!!!

  20. Ambiguous headline by wvmarle · · Score: 4, Insightful

    OK call me old-fashioned, but I totally misread the headline.

    I thought this was about general child abuse, not just the sexual subset, which could be a just a small part of overall child abuse. What I was thinking of was things like poor treatment by parents, such as receiving beatings or insufficient food or having to live in a terribly dirty home, all that kind of abuses. The kind of abuse children have to be removed from their home for, placed with foster parents, etc.

    In other countries, mostly eliminated in the UK, there are of course also issues such as child labour (children forced to work long hours in dangerous or hazardous conditions), depriving children of access to education (particularly girls in Muslim countries), and other serious and highly widespread forms of abuse.

    Not to gloss over sexual abuse, which can be pretty bad as well of course, there's a lot more to "child abuse" than just "sexual child abuse". However equating "child abuse" to "sexual child abuse" makes us forget the other forms of abuse, which I strongly believe are far more widespread than sexual abuse. But maybe those are simply not as sexy, politically.

    1. Re:Ambiguous headline by SuricouRaven · · Score: 3, Informative

      In the UK, child sexual abuse has been a tabloid-driven panic-issue for many years. The government is very eager to be seen doing something about it. Not because it's any more common here than elsewhere in the world, but because every time someone gets caught after going undetected for years there's a media field day, which in turn means an investigation into why they weren't caught sooner, and someone has to bear the public's wrath.

    2. Re:Ambiguous headline by wvmarle · · Score: 1

      I know, that's how it works. Too bad the tabloids don't jump on the many many other child abuse stories that do not involve sex.

    3. Re:Ambiguous headline by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      To be fair, many of those crimes were detected when the victims complained about them, but they were ignored. That's the real scandal.

      I agree about the media lead witch-hunt though. We have had riots against paediatrician's offices because of it.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    4. Re:Ambiguous headline by dfenstrate · · Score: 1

      someone has to bear the public's wrath.

      Has anyone actually borne the public's wrath over Rotherham scandal? I'm not sure anyone has even resign over it. No, just more tepid 'investigations of failures in processes.'

      The problem with Rotherham wasn't that it went 'Undetected for years.' It was detected and ignored, by people who didn't want to seem racist for arresting sexually deviant immigrants. Either that, or they were on the take.

      No, Rotherham represents an abject failure of people in society to act in order to protect the young. There's no slouching away the travesty by implying that sort of mass, long ignored child abuse in common elsewhere in the world. England is a country where people know better than to tolerate this, and once had the moral fortitude to do something about it.

      --
      Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
    5. Re:Ambiguous headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Problem is, that even in the case of non-sexual child abuse a wrongful accusation can cause great harm. A few years ago I was accused of physically assaulting my son by my psychotic ex wife. Because there was a high profile child neglect case in the media that the authorities had screwed up on, just the fact that I was accused meant that I had to go through a long series of court appearances to finally get myself acquitted. Had it not been for the fact that I love my kids and was completely innocent of the charge, I think I might have fallen apart. These things work both ways. Vigilance - great. Vigilantism, deplorable and destructive. I have no respect for the police, the legal system, or any government. Their loss, not mine. They are the scum. Not me.

  21. This is a complete farce by Idimmu+Xul · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If they wanted to prosecute peadophiles theye'd open and release the dossier from the 80s.

    --
    The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
    1. Re:This is a complete farce by ihtoit · · Score: 1

      mod up. Still waiting to hear from PS on that.

      --
      Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
  22. Grammer nazi by rossdee · · Score: 2

    "next year it's for enemy's of the state."

    Just as well its not France, they would want a database of enemies of the language.

    Fortunately for you this website is american, and freedom to mangle the language is implied in the first amendment.

    1. Re:Grammer nazi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Grammar. If you're going to correct someone, at least don't make mistakes yourself.

    2. Re:Grammer nazi by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Grammer nazi

      Just wait until the Spelling Bolsheviks find you...

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    3. Re:Grammer nazi by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      The Capitalisation Inquisition are hunting you down.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  23. Editing the language by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... child abuse photos ... illegal images is confiscated ...

    Translation: Child abuse == sexual assault (pedophilia)

    ... could end up unknowingly investigating the same victims ...

    The police used to be very big on names and identities. This duplication means either poor administration, or the police don't have the name of the victim.

    1. Re:Editing the language by Cederic · · Score: 1

      or the police don't have the name of the victim.

      You're a police man, you see a man raping a 4 year old girl so you arrest him. You go to his home and confiscate his computer, and find a dozen images (or more likely tens of thousands) of images of small girls being abused.

      Do you know who the dozen small girls are? Do you know whether they're still all 4 years old, or whether they're now in their 50s?

      So you're a policeman, so you want to know who those small girls are. They may need help. They may still be getting abused. Sadly the criminal hasn't built a large metadata index matching the abused girls to their name, address, date of birth...

      Knowing that 90% of the images have already been investigated because they were found on a previous criminal's hard drive means you can focus your resources on the remaining 10%. That's kind of useful.

  24. Bad story by ihtoit · · Score: 1

    Headline should read: VIP Paedophile Ring Given Boost With Stolen Data

    I would like to post survivors' inputs into this story, but the ones I know personally and have already contacted are still in open-mouthed shock at the audacity of it.

    --
    Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
  25. *sigh* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    And, once again, it's not a crime to be a pedophile.

    I really wish the British would stop synonymizing pedophile, child molester and a possessor of abuse videos and photos as the same fucking thing, when they're all very different.

    Having an attraction isn't a crime, acting on it is.

    1. Re:*sigh* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly. It's the same thing about homosexuals. Being a homosexual isn't a crime, but acting on it and committing buggery is.

    2. Re:*sigh* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was surprised to learn that while homosexuality was illegal, lesbianism wan't.

    3. Re:*sigh* by ACE209 · · Score: 2

      "homosexuality" is the gender neutral term. It includes both gays and lesbians.

      --
      "we are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further."
    4. Re:*sigh* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indeed, however, back when homosexuality was illegal in the UK, it was only illegal if you were a man.

    5. Re: *sigh* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apparently Queen Victotia refused to believe such a thing existed and had the proposed act amended. That's what I read anyway, even if it could well be a myth.

    6. Re: *sigh* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From my understanding: Apparently the MPs were passing a law making it illegal, but Lords didn't like it, so it never got passed.

    7. Re: *sigh* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I feel the same way about Americans who think communism and socialism are synonymous.

    8. Re:*sigh* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What idiot voted this as troll?

      OP is correct.

      Pedophilia is just having an attraction to children. It's possible to be a pedophile and not possess image of children being abused, or abusing them.

      Like how it's possible to be married and not cheat on your spouse with every person you meet.

  26. A wet dream by ruir · · Score: 1, Funny

    Of a closet pedophile cop...How long until this DB is hacked too? The UK has been brilliant managing governmental IT projects.

    1. Re:A wet dream by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We must protect the young closets from these monsters.

  27. Re:Muslim Men by Alain+Williams · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Aisha went to live with Muhammad at the age of 9 or 10. A paedophile by today's standards. Was it that unusual in the 7th century ? I do not know. Beware trying to judge peoples in other times or places by your own morals.

  28. Re:Muslim Men by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Beware trying to judge peoples in other times or places by your own morals.

    There is a very significant minority of modern-day Muslims who believe that Muhammad lived a perfect life and thus his life should be an example to be followed by all. He was "perfect" in every way, by their belief system. You might have heard of these people. They have founded something they call the Islamic State. They do a nice line in crucifixions, beheading and suicide bombing.

    I will judge them by my modern secular morals. They are evil psychopaths.

  29. use, mis-use, abuse : having kids while undercover by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In the UK, the police can arrest you at will.

    Having done so, they then have full access to everything - your computer, your phone, your diary, everything.

    You get six months in jail if you refuse to hand over any encryption keys.

    The police in the UK also for example have been in the practise of filming whoever is entering or leaving the Greenpeace building. Actual police, with actual cameras, recording.

    There also recently were scandals where the police were planting long term agents into law-abiding civil protest organizations. As an aside, in a few cases, these men, beng human, were also having relaitonships *and children* with those partners, all of whom then later found out.

    This database of images - the software being paid for now to build it can and will be used with a wide range of other photos. Having been wrongfully arrested, because you are a person of interest to such police forces, your hard disks will be scanned. Is this a photo of the head of Greenpeace? a known member of a civil protest organization? and those photos you have will of course all then be added to the database.

    Any tool is meaningless in and of itself. What matter is how it is used, and the police forces in the UK are not trustworthy. Any new capabilities they acquire are used to further their current conduct, and it is that conduct which is problematic.

  30. How hard can it be... by Begemot · · Score: 2

    ... listing all priests in Britain?

    1. Re:How hard can it be... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really? Do you think all Muslims are terrorists too? Who mods this up?

    2. Re:How hard can it be... by Begemot · · Score: 1

      I actually think that any religion is crazy, so yes, Muslims too.

  31. Re:Muslim Men by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    History holds NO-ONE named Jesus, except in the case of Hispanics.
    Jesus is a piss poor Greek transfuckuration of "Yeshua"
    Every name you have read in the Bible is a fuck-over of the original Hebrew, for no particularly good reason at all.
    Does YOUR name change when you go to another country that doesn't speak your language? NO.
    If you are a " Christian" , who the fuck are you praying to? You don't even know!
    I bet you don't even know the name of the God you worship, and it isn't "God", it isn't Lord, it isn't Jehovah (no "J"s in Hebrew), it isn't Adonai, it isn't Elohim, most of these are titles, not names. Christians are funny, they don't know what they are doing at any given time, just that they were "told to".
    There is NO evidence anywhere that Yeshua was a Pedophile, there is historical evidence that Mohammed was.

  32. Re:Muslim Men by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Since we are advanced enough to know the outcome of such activities, yes, it IS important to judge them by todays standards, rather than adopt theirs.
    Our ancestors were complete scumbags, if only for their ignorance. A read of the Bible shows us this, without covering the warts, in fact, highlighting them, as an example of what NOT TO DO. Even Muslims call the Torah (first 5 books of the Bible) ,"holy", as well as the prophets. But, we also have a measure to judge them by;
    " You shall know a tree, by the fruit it bears" . So with this in mind we can ELIMINATE Islam as well as Catholicism from being representative of the will of our creator and slay pedophiles from either camp as well as trashing their dogma as false and self serving. They're cults and have nothing to do with the God we worship. Protestants? There is no such thing; they're just "protesting-Catholics", they still follow Catholicism in ritual and dogma with only minor changes.
    So, I don't think times have changed morals much, judgement is all you have to guide you. Kind of like walking a trail with your eyes closed if you don't judge by what you know NOW. No need to beware of judgement.

  33. More importantly... by MagickalMyst · · Score: 2

    They should create a child abuser database, from which the public has access.

    Most importantly it should highlight prominent pedophiles.

    For a list of names, The Franklin Cover-Up would be a good place to start.

    --
    Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
    1. Re:More importantly... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They should create a child abuser database, from which the public has access.

      Why?

      So the British public can act out their genocidal tendancies on people?

      Even if people have been added to the database in error?

  34. Re:Muslim Men by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

    The problem is that Mohammed is viewed as a model by which to live your own life, much as Jesus is by Christians.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  35. Re:Muslim Men by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, Jesus was a camel fucker.

  36. Good, He did a good thing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Young girls are often very pretty and very nice. Unlike many women.

  37. Not a new thing by wiredog · · Score: 1

    The FBI's DaLAS System has been doing this for several years now, but with things in addition to child abuse imagery. Since we shared the system with the UK they presumably just copied the relevant parts/ideas.

  38. She's a witch! by pigsycyberbully · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The U.K. is a child abuse state. In the 70s they were sending children to known paedophiles in what they called "children's homes" they were taking children away from their parents for no other reason than being absent from school only the pretty ones of course. You can find pictures on the Internet of Edward Heath, on his boat with children and another politician and a well-known policeman. There are also pictures of Edward Heath naked on his boat with children. Cyril Smith MP would invite himself into these "children's homes" to abuse children. The British government set up a child abuse ring in Northern Ireland in "children's homes" to entrap dissidents. They created child abuse on an industrial scale in Wales, and one in Cornwall and two in Devon.
    Paedophilia in the U.K. establishment makes the Internet look like small time in comparison. The U.K. media love hysteria and the spy agencies love using it to spy on everybody.
    The Art of controlling someone or something to your own advantage, unfairly and dishonestly and often deadly:.
    She's a witch! https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
    17th March 1954 https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
    BBC "Horizon": AIDS (1983) https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    1. Re:She's a witch! by ihtoit · · Score: 2

      not forgetting Birmingham, Nottingham, Rochdale, Rotherham, Doncaster, Derby, Coventry, Hereford, Watford, Cleveland, Jersey, Isle of Wight, I could go on, I even have something called first-hand testimony from survivors and one of the survivors central to the Broxtowe case (from which the JET Report and the Children Act 1989 which resulted from that) lives all of ten minutes away from me. She could tell you stuff that'd make your hair turn white.

      --
      Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
  39. Re:Muslim Men by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is politically-correct Britain, not crude America. When Pakis rape kids, civilized Brits just look the other way, rather than be called racists. They're so much more tolerant than those evil conservative Americans.

  40. Re:Muslim Men by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The problem is that Mohammed is viewed as a model by which to live your own life, much as Jesus is by Christians.

    Viewing != acting

    How many Christians follow Jesus' model and voluntarily live and die as virgins? Only some of their clergy does that.

    In that light, Jesus' model of being a virgin is a much worse role model than Mohammad, who at least continued the human race.

  41. Re:Muslim Men by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2

    It's totally OK to do that, though. Did you ever read any leftist history books? They judge the whole of American and European history by politically correct standards that didn't exist until after 1990, and they consider themselves completely in the right to do so. Any Western culture that had the misfortune not to foresee centuries in the future is ruthlessly judged.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  42. Re:Muslim Men by slashmydots · · Score: 0

    I thought England was just going to kick them all out of the country. Muslims in England bring back the good old days of the early 1900's in America. People hated the Irish not because of their speech, the color of their skin, or their beliefs. They hated them just because they were culturally unbearable alcohol lazy pieces of shit that beat their wives and couldn't hold down a job and fought everyone. The same goes for muslims. England was all inclusive and friendly and pro-immigrant until they actually had muslims start living there. Discrimination purely based on merit. It's what Martin Luther King dreamed of.

  43. Re:Muslim Men by slashmydots · · Score: 1

    Don't forget, kids develop a hell of a lot faster these days too. There were no six foot tall 10 year olds girls back then.

  44. Just make sure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That they include cases from the Catholic Church in it and clearly designate that employees of the church committed those acts.

  45. Re:Muslim Men by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He also took out a not insignificant number of the Human race...both back then and now.

  46. The irony of this is astounding by Khyber · · Score: 1

    UK Authorities making a child abuse database when it's likely that at least a quarter of the people in power are child abusers.

    Absolutely fucking stunning!

    As I've always said, those that 'think of the children' are usually the ones you need to be wary of.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  47. Re:Muslim Men by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, Jesus was gay. 12 'apostles'? yeah right.

  48. Re:Muslim Men by oldmac31310 · · Score: 1

    Why the assumption that Jesus was a virgin?

    --
    http://www.acetonestudio.com
  49. To Serve Man by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's a Cookbook !

  50. Re:Muslim Men by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are a serial retard. Please stop posting

  51. Re:Muslim Men by oldmac31310 · · Score: 1

    This is pure bullshit. You are a bigot and an idiot.

    --
    http://www.acetonestudio.com
  52. Statistics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Probably it's emerging that the best predictor for pedophelia is the perps vehemence in proclaiming his religious convictions.

  53. Re:Muslim Men by CanHasDIY · · Score: 2

    And the problem with that, of course, is that a good decade of Jesus' life is undocumented - lord only knows (pun definitely intended) what kind of trouble He got into in His 20's.

    --
    An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
  54. Re:Muslim Men by CanHasDIY · · Score: 1

    Statistically speaking, at least 1 of the Apostles had to be gay. My guess is Simon.

    --
    An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
  55. Re:Muslim Men by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    A paedophile by today's standards.

    It's a modern term, logically, it has a modern standard. But just because people in the past didn't know the notion of brain aneurysms doesn't mean that they didn't occasionally drop dead. This is medical issue, not a cultural one.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  56. Re:Muslim Men by slashmydots · · Score: 1

    Wow, what a logical and well thought out counterpoint to my completely backed up and logical argument.

  57. Human rights haven't changed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good! There were some people - even back then - who took the effort to think and adopt wildly unpopular positions like abolitionism and women's rights. They deserve positive recognition, and people who (for example) oppose LGBT rights today deserve to be judged by future generations too.

    If you don't like this, then hit the philosophy books and make some difficult decisions. You can't be both right and popular.

    Captcha: aborted

    1. Re:Human rights haven't changed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can't be both right and popular

      But now that we can't just kill everyone who refuses to admit we're right, popularity is the only way to decide rightness!

  58. Yes! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pictures and/or videos! Need some new fap material :)

  59. Re:Muslim Men by oldmac31310 · · Score: 1

    WTF?

    --
    http://www.acetonestudio.com
  60. Re:Muslim Men by ihtoit · · Score: 1

    uh... he wasn't, he took a prostitute. Even sired a child (Judah)

    (source: the Jerusalem Ossuary)

    --
    Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
  61. Re:Muslim Men by TheCarp · · Score: 2

    No statistically speaking at least one of them was most probably gay and its likely more than one were. Statistically speaking nothing is ruled out, including that they were all gay or none of them were.

    Lets say it was completely random selection of individuals, and 10% of the population is gay. Since no one selection decreases the population significantly, each choice has a 9 out of 10 chance of not being gay. Which maybe my math is wrong but (9/10)^12 is .28, or 28% or about 1 in 3 chance of picking an all straight group of appostles.

    I wouldn't place many bets on a 1 in 3 chance, but, I wouldn't bet much against it either.

    This of course assumes that there is no bias that would say, make gay men more available or more likely to want to be apostles, which, is hard to quantify, and might skew things a bit, but its hard to imagine enough to offset the starting 1/10 starting proportion.

    --
    "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
  62. Re:Muslim Men by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Right... because Christian documents are wholly suspect and never to be used as evidence, unless they are documents rejected by Christian scholarship from the outset. Then they are ironclad proof.

  63. Re:Muslim Men by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ah, such a popular vague and self-reassuring usage of language. If only it were accurate withing the unmentioned context.

    The "human race" cannot "continue". Every single member of the "human race" will cease to "continue" much sooner than that, within 150 years.

    Unless, of course, Jesus is correct.

  64. Re:Muslim Men by ihtoit · · Score: 1

    not necessarily rejected, they may merely be lost then found (cf. The Dead Sea Scrolls).
    Just because the Jerusalem Ossuary was only discovered in 1980 (and quickly authenticated as it was immediately suspected how significant such a find might be) doesn't mean it was to be buried and forgotten. Were that the case, they might just as well have incinerated it.

    --
    Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
  65. Re:Muslim Men by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're right to be sarcastic, but only for the "completely backed up and logical" part.