A web-crawling software will be used in New Zealand with the aim of detecting and removing child sex abuse material.
The New Zealand Classification Office has joined a one-year pilot in collaboration with Canada’s Project Arachnid, which searches for and identifies child sex abuse material online.
Chief Censor David Shanks said the worldwide scope of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection‘s project meant New Zealanders could benefit from increased data and reporting on the material while contributing to a leading global initiative.
Project Arachnid uses web-crawling software which systematically browses the internet to detect child sexual abuse images and videos on both the open and dark web. It then issues takedown notices to hosting providers.