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Global Response Against Child Exploitation

Project description

Machine learning tools and techniques to fight child sexual exploitation

The distribution of child sexual exploitation materials is an abhorrent crime. Online service providers' and users’ suspicious material detection technologies are improving. However, the huge amount of referrals collected by law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in combination with limited human resources, manual analysis and the 4 000 % increase in referrals since 2014 prevent their investigative capacity. The EU-funded GRACE project will apply proven techniques in machine learning to the referral and analysis elaboration while appropriately managing the technical, ethical and legal challenges unique to fighting child sexual exploitation. The project will use resources from EUROPOL and its nine Member State LEAs to provide early, frequent and flexible results that will be handed back to EUROPOL and Member State LEAs, helping to ensure their future technological autonomy.

Objective

The use of the Internet to distribute CSEM is an abhorrent crime. Referrals from Online Service Providers are key to fighting CSE. OSPs, detection technologies and users reporting suspicious material are improving. However, this leads to an increase in the sheer volume of referrals coupled with the increase in the distribution of CSEM online that is pushing MS LEAs to their limits and affecting their their capacity to prevent harm to infants and children, rescue those in immediate danger, and investigate and prosecute perpetrators. The NCMEC process has improved LEA capability. But, a typical CSE case contains 1-3 TBs of video, 1–10 million images. Limited human resources, manual analysis and the 4,000% increase in referrals since 2014 obligates a new approach. GRACE will apply proven techniques in ML to the referral and analysis process while embracing the very technical, ethical and legal challenges unique to fighting CSE. GRACE will leverage resources already in place at EUROPOL and its 9 MS LEAs and attempt to provide results early, frequently and flexibly, prioritising easy wins in the research plan (e.g. deduplication). By applying Federated Learning approach to the challenge of optimising analysis and information flow, GRACE will enable cooperation between LEAs in improving their own capabilities and harness experiential knowledge. The results of GRACE will be handed back to EUROPOL and MS LEAs for unrestricted use in their missions, helping to ensure their future technological autonomy.

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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RIA - Research and Innovation action

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) H2020-SU-SEC-2018-2019-2020

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Coordinator

FUNDACION CENTRO DE TECNOLOGIAS DE INTERACCION VISUAL Y COMUNICACIONES VICOMTECH
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 786 387,50
Address
PASEO MIKELETEGI PARQUE TECNOLOGICO DE MIRAMON 57
20009 Donostia San Sebastian
Spain

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Noreste País Vasco Gipuzkoa
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 786 387,50

Participants (22)

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