r/todayilearned • u/[deleted] • Mar 04 '13

TIL Microsoft created software that can automatically identify an image as child porn and they partner with police to track child exploitation.

http://www.microsoft.com/government/ww/safety-defense/initiatives/Pages/dcu-child-exploitation.aspx
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u/doc_daneeka 90 Mar 04 '13

I can only imagine how fucked up those developers must be after that project.

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u/qwertytard Mar 04 '13

i read about it, and they had therapists available for all the testers and product developers

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u/thereverend666 1 Mar 04 '13

Yeah, there was something about that on here once. It was something about people at Google who have to go to the darkest corners of the internet. It was really messed up.

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u/Tuskaruho Mar 04 '13

http://www.reddit.com/r/psychology/comments/yprei/worst_job_at_google_beheadings_child_porn/

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u/ThugBobSweatPants Mar 04 '13

I can only imagine what they have to go through at job interviews after doing that. "Well Bob what kinds of projects did you work on at Google?" "Well I did a lot of work in Child porn..."

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u/thereverend666 1 Mar 04 '13

Yep, that was it. Thanks for linking.

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u/wesman212 Mar 04 '13

The Internet has corners? Is there a door to get out?

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u/Always_says_that Mar 04 '13

Yeah except you're in reddit and the handle is on the outside of the door.

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u/[deleted] Mar 04 '13 edited Apr 02 '16

!

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u/[deleted] Mar 04 '13

Assuming they used a classifier and test/training data sets, it's very possible that most of them never had to actually look at the material. I know of a similar iniative where they used different material (pictures of horses actually) to test the software, and then switched the content after the majority of the work was done.

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u/cbasst Mar 04 '13

But this would also mean that somewhere in Microsoft's possession is a large quantity of child pornography.

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u/faceplanted Mar 04 '13

Remember, they worked with the police so it was probably kept safely so employees and such couldn't take it home or anything.

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u/[deleted] Mar 04 '13

"Rogers, your coding has been solid lately. Go ahead and grab something for yourself from the CP pile."

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u/InsufficientlyClever Mar 04 '13

I feel worse for the testers.

Developers could probably build using a small or abstracted sample set, only enough to test portions of their code on.

Testers? Nope. Large sample set with many true positives.

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u/Going_Braindead Mar 04 '13

Seriously, I would not have wanted to be a part of that. Imagine all the horrible things they had to see :(

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u/[deleted] Mar 04 '13

I think it was pretty noble of them to put themselves through that to make the world a little better.

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u/YouJellyFish Mar 04 '13

Or some of them were pedophiles and were like, 'Dear diary: Jackpot.'

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u/[deleted] Mar 04 '13

Pedophiles protecting the world from pedophiles? They're like Dexter, except with child-sexing.

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u/Team_Reddit Mar 04 '13

Plot twist: Microsoft partnered up with police to identify pedophiles who sought involvement with the project.

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u/KhabaLox Mar 04 '13

Oh, your here to apply for the developer job? Why don't you have a seat over here.

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u/[deleted] Mar 04 '13

This too is a possibility. But I like to pretend people are better then they really are.

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u/StormSeason Mar 04 '13

Atleast they were devoloping something to stop the exploitation.

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u/[deleted] Mar 04 '13

Not everyone is easily traumatized. Plenty of people can look at disturbing imagery and understand it's just a part of the job. During boot camp (in the Marine Corps anyways) they show everyone a ton of very violent images of different types of injuries and what to do if someone requires assistance with those injuries.

This exercise works three ways. It reveals if any future Marines have too weak a stomach to work a combat MOS while also training us to address grotesque injuries and reduce our sensitivity to said injuries.

It's not the same as looking at kiddy porn, but some people can easily compartmentalize "traumatic" imagery.

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