Seven booked by CBI for peddling child pornography on WhatsApp

Three long months after receiving the information, the CBI registered a preliminary inquiry on May 10, 2019.

The Central Bureau of Investigation has booked seven Indians for being part of international WhatsApp groups circulating child sexual abuse content, a probe triggered by the arrest of a group member in Germany, officials said here Monday.

The agency has carried out searches at several locations across the country after registering an FIR against seven persons who owned the numbers which were part of the WhatsApp groups, they said.

The agency was informed by German Embassy on January 31, 2019 about the arrest and conviction of Sasche Treppke in that country for involvement in sexual abuse of children and distribution of related material between November 24, 2015 and July 8, 2016, according to the FIR.

Three long months after receiving the information, the CBI registered a preliminary inquiry on May 10, 2019 to verify the facts, the FIR said. During their investigation, German sleuths searched the residence of Treppke and found huge data in the form of pictures and videos pertaining to child sexual abuse, officials said.

It also surfaced that Treppke was member of 29 WhatsApp groups, having a total of 483 participants, on which the sexual abuse content was shared. Seven "active" Indian numbers too were found to be part of these WhatsApp groups, they said.

After nearly five months of preliminary inquiry, CBI managed to access the customer application forms and identity proofs submitted by these seven subscribers to establish their identities, they said.

The phone numbers are from Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Trying to contact them failed as none were functioning, they said.

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Google announces new AI technology to fight online child sexual abuse

Many tech companies are now more willing to leverage AI to detect various kinds of CSAM contents such as nudity and abusive comments.

US tech giant Google announced on Monday that it is employing a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to combat online spreading of contents involving child sexual abuse.

Google said its cutting-edge AI technology uses deep neural networks for image processing to help discover and detect child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online.

The new tool based on the deep neural networks will be made available for free to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other "industry partners," including other technology companies, via a new Content Safety API service that could be offered upon request, Xinhua reported.

"Using the Internet as a means to spread content that sexually exploits children is one of the worst abuses imaginable," Google Engineering Lead Nikola Todorovic and Product Manager Abhi Chaudhuri wrote in the company's official blog post.

The new AI technology will significantly help service providers, NGOs and other tech firms to improve the efficiency of CSAM detection and reduce human reviewers' exposure to the content, said the two Google engineers.

"Quick identification of new images means that children who are being sexually abused today are much more likely to be identified and protected from further abuse," they noted.

"We've seen firsthand that this system can help a reviewer find and take action on 700 per cent more CSAM content over the same time period," they added.

Many tech companies are now more willing to leverage AI to detect various kinds of CSAM contents such as nudity and abusive comments, and Google's announcement represents its fresh commitment to fighting online CSAM contents by sharing "the latest technological advancements."

Google has been cooperating with some of its partners in combating online child sexual abuse, including the Britain-based charity the Internet Watch Foundation, the Technology Coalition and the WePROTECT Global Alliance, as well as other NGO organisations.

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