*******Hi, before I dig in, I just want to warn everybody that this post and the links in the post discuss material that may be triggering to some (as it mentions child abuse and has testimony from victims). Please proceed with caution.*******
The New York Times published an investigation into child sexual exploitation last week. In the radio version, they discuss how they built a program to find images of exploitation that came up in generic search engine searches, run them against an existing database of images, and figure out how the instances in their data compare to national law enforcement statistics.
They uncovered a troubling pattern by which sexually-explicit images of children are continually found, despite the fact that the creators of search engines (including Microsoft) have built technology to help the FBI and others find this information on the internet. The story uses data to unwind the tangled web of responsibility. And in the second episode, the Times digs into the implications for victims.