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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."

1 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. *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.