Microsoft has developed a new project dubbed, “Project Artemis” which is a technique to detect and report predators who attempt to lure children online. The technology will be made available for free to qualifying online service companies that offer a chat function.
Project Artemis reviews text-based conversations and evaluates whether they could be considered grooming. It assigns a rating, and companies can use those ratings to flag conversations for review by human moderators.
The project started in November 2018 at a Microsoft "360 Cross-Industry Hackathon." Microsoft, The Meet Group, Roblox, Kik, Thorn and others have helped build the tool. From January 10th, the licensing will be handled by Thorn, a nonprofit that builds tech to defend children from sexual abuse.
In a blog post announcing Project Artemis, Microsoft wrote:
"Project Artemis" is a significant step forward, but it is by no means a panacea. Child sexual exploitation and abuse online and the detection of online child grooming are weighty problems. But we are not deterred by the complexity and intricacy of such issues. On the contrary, we are making the tool available at this point in time to invite further contributions and engagement from other technology companies and organizations with the goal of continuous improvement and refinement.”
Like Microsoft, a lot of other Big Tech companies are fighting child exploitation and abuse. Last year, YouTube pulled hundreds of channels and disabled comments on tens of millions of videos after reports suggested a child porn ring existed on the platform. Likewise Facebook is said to be using machine learning to fight child exploitation, and the Tumblr app was once removed from the App Store when images depicting child sexual abuse got past its filters.
See What’s Next in Tech With the Fast Forward Newsletter
Tweets From @varindiamag
Nothing to see here - yet
When they Tweet, their Tweets will show up here.
