Google pledges millions to fight child porn on the Internet

U.S. search giant Google says it will spend millions to erase child porn from the Web and research more effective ways to find, report and eradicate the images. Part of the company's $5 million pledge will go to established child-protection groups working with Google to fight the problem, including the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Internet Watch Foundation, Google said on its company blog Monday. "The Internet has been a tremendous force for good -- increasing access to information, improving people's ability to communicate and driving economic growth," Jacqueline Fuller, the director of Google Giving, said in a blog post. "But like the physical world, there are dark corners on the Web where criminal behavior exists." Google said it has initiated "fingerprinting" of child sex-abuse images to help law enforcement and Web companies find, identify and remove the images, and help authorities in prosecuting those who post them. Google also said it is creating a Child Protection Technology Fund of $2 million to develop more efficient ways to fight child porn on the Internet. "We're in the business of making information widely available, but there's certain 'information' that should never be created or found," Fuller wrote. "We can do a lot to ensure it's not available online -- and that when people try to share this disgusting content they are caught and prosecuted."