Blacklisting Child Porn Search Terms Not the Answer to Tackling Paedophilia

David Cameron's plans to filter search terms related to child pornography will not solve the problem.

While doing everything you can to block people stumbling across child pornography images online is laudable, the bigger problem will remain out of reach of the authorities.

Those creating, trading and searching for depraved images of child pornography simply do not use the internet as most people know it. They use the "deep web" or the "dark web", where no amount of search-term filtering can prevent these images from being bought and sold.

The deep web is a section of the internet which cannot be indexed by Google's search robots and allows users the blanket of anonymity to conduct online business safe in the knowledge that their identity and location cannot be revealed.

Sites like Silk Road, where you can openly buy your drug of choice and have it delivered to your front door, may be the best known examples of the deep web, but this anonymous network is also home to hundreds of sites related to child pornography.

Scarily easy

The problem is that while Google's search crawlers cannot access this part of the web, it is scarily easy for everyone else to do so, and within a couple of clicks have access to some of the most disgusting and depraved content you can imagine.

While Cameron is clearly under huge pressure to do something to counteract what seems like a rising prevalence of child pornography, simply blacklisting a specific set of search terms will only prevent the accidental discovery of child porn by unsuspecting users.

Yes this is good, but it does little to tackle the real heart of the problem.

Actively seeking out

The new rules will have little to no impact on the people who are actively seeking out these images, and certainly won't effect those peddling the content, as they know full well how to avoid the glare of Google's search robots.

Accessing the deep web is done using a special piece of software such as Tor, which allows users to carry out activities online without anyone being able to identify you or where you are located - even governments and law enforcement agencies cannot penetrate the encryption.

This deep web has its own indexing page called the Hidden Wiki and within two clicks it is clear that the pedophile community is highly concentrated and very active on the deep web. As well as sites hosting, selling and trading in child porn images, you can find sites called "Your Own Pedo Site"; "Producing kiddie porn for dummies" and "How to practice child love".

False sense of security

David Cameron's intentions may be good but his proposals will merely give the general public a false sense of security that they are tackling the real problem of paedophilia.

Christian Berg, CEO at NetClean - a company which produces technology to track illegal images of child sexual abuse - believes the government should be doing more to protect the victim rather than those using the web:

"More focus needs to be placed on the victim and for the victim its not enough that you cannot find those images when you search for them, more proactive work must be done to find that victim and bring abusers to justice."

Berg adds that while blocking search terms is a good first step, it will not be effective in the long run:

"Blocking search terms will raise the bar for initial access to this content, but the fact remains that the vast majority of this material is not found on the open, searchable internet. Stronger laws are a great exercise in demonstrating the strength of will behind this campaign, however the core of the solution is technology, and ensuring that the technology available to track, find and disrupt this crime is used effectively world wide."