Google Child Abuse Image Block 'Not Enough'

Microsoft and Google's announcement that they will block internet searches for child abuse images after months of mounting pressure is "not a solution", it has been claimed.

The move will soon prevent illegal images and videos from appearing in more than 100,000 search terms associated with abuse.

Google says it has also developed technology that will allow illegal videos to be "tagged" so all duplicate copies can be removed across the internet. The changes will apply across the world in more than 150 languages.

But critics insisted most offenders did not use conventional search engines and said the measure did not address the "root" of the problem.

Microsoft, which operates and powers Bing and Yahoo, will reportedly confirm at a Downing Street summit on online pornography today that it is introducing similar reforms.

Google chairman Eric Schmidt, writing in the Daily Mail ahead of the No 10 talks, said: "We've listened.

"We've fine-tuned Google Search to prevent links to child sexual abuse material from appearing in our results."

The Prime Minister welcomed the move as a "really significant step forward", but threatened to bring forward new legislation if search engine companies failed to deliver on their promises.

Some child protection experts have raised doubts over the changes, saying paedophiles rarely use search engines but instead use services such as peer-to-peer sharing.

Jim Gamble, former head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop), told Sky News: "This is not a solution.

"My fear is that it simply masks the symptoms... It is a positive step forward and the prime minister's involvement is a good thing but at the end of the day the fact remains that paedophiles don't search out their images on the internet.

"Nor does the internet make people become paedophiles - we need to get to the root cause of this."

Calls for internet companies to take action against searching for illegal content grew following the trials of child killers Mark Bridger and Stuart Hazel earlier this year.

Bridger, who murdered five-year-old April Jones, and Hazel, who killed 12-year-old Tia Sharp, both used the internet to search for child abuse images before the killings.

Senior figures from Google, Microsoft and BT were summoned to Parliament for a meeting with Culture Secretary Maria Miller in June where they were told they had to do more to combat the issue.

The crackdown comes as Mr Cameron is set to reveal at the summit that Britain's National Crime Agency is to join America's FBI to tackle online child abuse.

The transatlantic taskforce is being established by the US assistant attorney general and the British to target criminals who use the internet to hide from the law.

It will be specifically tasked with tracking down offenders who use the "dark web" - secret and encrypted networks that are increasingly being exploited by paedophiles and other criminals.

The NCA estimates the number of UK daily users of secret or encrypted networks will have risen to 20,000 by the end of the year.

Joanna Shields, the chief executive of Tech City UK, said it would be looking to spot the "threats of future" to protect the most vulnerable in society.

"It's vital that governments and industry work together to eradicate child abuse content from the internet, and that we mobilise the best and brightest in the technology industry to come up with innovative solutions to tackling this problem," she said.