New tech assists to help fight child sexual abuse, Part 2

Technology that is unavailable to the public that can transform blurred images into sharply focused material. Fingerprints that can actually be pulled from a photo and enhanced to the point where positive identification of an individual can be made. So-called “Photo DNA” technology that enables criminal investigators poring over computers to review data 100 times faster than was formerly the case.

Welcome to the increasingly sophisticated world of FBI, Homeland Security and other law enforcement agency personnel who spend their time perusing the huge amount of images posted, exchanged and sold by sex abusers on Internet child porn and related sites.

That is indeed a dark and sordid world, and a disturbingly huge universe. A recent CNN story on tech tools being used in the fight against child sex abusers notes that illegal images of children being shared on the Internet by pedophiles number in the millions. Just last year, a national organization devoted to the critically important task of finding and helping missing and exploited kids reportedly received well over four million tips regarding online child pornography and related criminal activity.

The word “war” reasonably comes to mind in the fight against child sexual abuse, and investigators are openly thankful for new weapons that can materially assist them in their task of identifying and bringing to justice individuals who harm children. Some of the new tech tools and enhancements now available to digital detectives and child porn-fighting task teams have been called “game changers” by those who use them.

The war goes on. For the sake of its many victims, it simply must be won.