The UK Police force is compiling a national database of child abuse images seized from paedophiles and illegal content trading sites to identify and keep a record of both sexual abuse victims as well as those responsible.
Dubbed the Child Abuse Image Database (CAID), the new project aims to link up existing databases across 46 UK police forces to enable them to conduct more efficient investigations into child abuse cases.
The need to build the CAID has arisen due to the alarming increase in number of child abuse pictures taken down from websites during police raids. The CAID will allow investigators to differentiate between new and existing material and categorize new images that could lead to the identification of new victims and cases to get potentially solved faster..
Talking about the new initiative, Policing Minister Mike Penning in a statement said CAID was “a watershed moment in this government’s drive to stamp out the despicable crime of online child sexual exploitation”.
“The outcomes will be life-changing, and in some cases life-saving,” he said.
“That is how important this database is.”
Built by tech firms NetClean, Hubstream and L-3 ASA, the CAID database is part of a larger international effort called Project Vic that seeks to classify images held by forces around the world.
Richard Brown from the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, which is helping co-ordinate Project Vic, said the two initiatives would use the same protocols to allow images to be transferred more easily.
Besides helping to track down online abusers, it has been estimated that the project will save the authorities more than £7.5 million by improving efficiency.
In addition to helping investigators track down online abusers, the project is also estimated to save the authorities more than £7.5 million by improving efficiency. The project is expected to be completed and start running by the end of 2014.
