Microsoft has announced a child sexual exploitation grooming detection technique called Project Artemis for use with online "chat", developed in conjunction with The Meet Group, Roblox, Kik and Thorn. It uses Microsoft-patented technology and will be made freely available via Thorn, a not-for-profit provider of child protection software, to qualified online service companies that run a chat function.
The technique is applied to historical text "chat" conversations. It evaluates and rates conversation characteristics and assigns an overall probability rating. This rating can then be used as a determiner of when a flagged conversation should be sent to human moderators for review.
Human moderators could then identify refer imminent threats to law enforcement, as well as incidents of suspected child sexual exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Along with ECPAT International, INHOPE and the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), NCMEC provided feedback during the development of the project.
Development of the Project Artemis technique began in November 2018 at a Microsoft 360 Cross-Industry Hackathon co-sponsored by the WeProtect Global Alliance in conjunction with the Child Dignity Alliance. The teams were led by Hany Farid, an academic who partnered Microsoft and Dartmouth College in 2009 to develop PhotoDNA, a free tool that has assisted in the detection, disruption and reporting of millions of child sexual exploitation images.
From 10 January, licensing and adoption of the technique will be handled by Thorn. Microsoft has been using the technique in programmes on its Xbox platform for several years and is exploring its use in chat services, including Skype.
