The development of a safety-tech tool to combat the viewing and spreading of child sexual abuse material has received €2 million in funding from the EU and will be tested in Belgium
The unique app called Salus will be developed by a collaboration of EU and UK experts. The tool is intended to be installed on devices of offenders who are at "risk of viewing child sexual abuse material" and will work in real-time, using highly accurate machine learning models to identify potential child sexual abuse material and stop users from seeing it.
Recent figures regarding the demand for such online material have reflected the growing need for such a tool, according to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), Europe’s largest hotline dedicated to finding and removing images and videos of child sexual abuse.
“Sadly, the demand for images and videos of children being sexually abused is unceasing. In 2022, the IWF removed more than 255,000 URLs from the internet which contained confirmed child sexual abuse material," its Chief Technology Officer, Dan Sexton said.
This was mirrored by Prof Dr Kris Goethals, Director of the University Forensic Centre (UFC) within the University Hospital Antwerp, who confirmed that there has been a further spike in online abuse images since the pandemic.
Preventative approach
Worryingly, the volume of online child sexual abuse offences has increased to the extent that it "simply overwhelmed the ability of law enforcement agencies, internationally, to respond." Such an online tool could be a useful addition to the existing efforts made by law enforcement.
IWF, together with one of the largest university hospitals in Europe, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (CUB), will start testing the app in March with "self-motivated and cooperative, potential or real users" of child sexual abuse images who want to avoid starting or continuing consumption are targeted in a "secure environment."
By testing it on this group of people, it is also hoped the tool will help combat a "growing demand" for child abuse images, as researchers will investigate why and how offenders begin viewing sexual images of children and what could help them to stop.
“These problems are observed all over the world and require an international solution," Goethals said.
"Unfortunately, a purely repressive approach to this phenomenon does not bring much relief, therefore the Protech project can be a first crucial step in a more preventive approach."
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Director of the Institute of Sexology and Sexual Medicine at CUB, Professor Dr Klaus M Beier added that the increasing consumption and distribution of such material necessitates research into user behaviour, "particularly in cases not known to the legal authorities."
Once designed, the tool will be rolled out in a pilot stage in five countries (Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Republic of Ireland and the UK) involving more than 50 professionals and at least 180 users over an 11-month period.
The app can only be added to a person's phone voluntarily, meaning users will have full knowledge of its purpose and its effect on their device, IWF stressed. It will not require user interaction unless sexual images of children are detected and blocked.
Finally, it will also prevent the re-victimisation of child sexual abuse survivors who "continue to suffer in the knowledge that others may still be able to view images and videos of them online," IWF concluded.
