Google Tackles Online Child Pornography
Morality in Media (MIM) commends the latest efforts by Google to block links to child sexual abuse material. Internet companies, including Google and Microsoft, worked alongside law enforcement to make this change happen.
“We are thrilled to hear that Google is making an effort to block this disgusting material that exploits children,” says MIM Executive Director Dawn Hawkins. “We urge companies to take the next step and make pornography available only on an opt-in basis to protect children and families from unwanted and degrading material.”
MIM urges supporters to sign a petition for companies, whether they are Internet or cable providers, to make pornography an opt-in-only service. The distribution of hard-core pornography is already illegal in the United States. With the harms stretching from child abuse to sex trafficking to violence against women, it is important for companies to take these steps.
Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt wrote in the Daily Mail, “While society will never wholly eliminate such depravity, we should do everything in our power to protect children from harm.”
Schmidt described how Google works to remove child abuse images and how the company’s new search algorithm will help filter searches.
