THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: IMPRESSED by the state police’s sustained action against child pornography, the Interpol have decided to provide sophisticated cyber tools to the state cops to bolster their efforts against the menace that has been plaguing the society for long.
The international police agency will provide the cops access to half-a-dozen tools that will enable data mining and victim identification among other tasks. The state police already have access to some of the cutting-edge tools currently being used by Interpol and other international agencies which have helped them in mounting Operation P-Hunt with success.
Among the tools, some of them were launched very recently and are not even available in international open market, said ADGP Manoj Abraham, nodal officer of Cyberdome, the cyber research and investigation wing of the state police.
Manoj said the tools are meant for large-scale data mining, darknet penetration and garnering download history of objectionable contents.
“If a particular clip that is objectionable is uploaded on to the software, it will throw up a truckload of videos in which the clip is incorporated. Not just that, we can access the download history of those videos. This is a wonderful way of detecting who all are downloading such videos across the globe,” Manoj said.
Since the child porn materials are mostly shared over encrypted peer-to-peer networks, the anonymity of the users are largely protected. This makes detection of sharing of child porn materials difficult for conventional law enforcement agencies. Compounding the woes, the objectionable video clips are incorporated within a movie or documentaries making it further tough for the agencies to crack. It’s in this context that the new tools become relevant.
Manoj said the anti-child porn drive of the state police has been applauded by international agencies and that’s why they are willing to provide maximum support. “Since child pornography is a global issue, they are happy to see that actions are being taken against it in these parts of the world. Hence they are ready to give us full access to the tools that costs thousands of dollars,” he said.
Police to adopt two-pronged approach
Apart from taking legal action, the police are mulling providing treatment to the child pornography offenders. Manoj said the menace should also be viewed as a mental disease and hence efforts should be taken to ensure that the offenders do not repeat the crime. “We are planning to approach the Health Department to chalk out a plan to provide a corrective mechanism for the offenders. Police alone cannot do it,” he said.