QCHQ’s know-how will be used to “go after” paedophiles who exploit hidden parts of the internet to share vile images of child abuse, David Cameron has said.
The Prime Minister hailed a crackdown by Microsoft and Google on internet searches for horrific photographs and videos as “real progress against the absolute evil of child abuse” but said tackling the “dark net” was the next stage in the battle against online paedophilia.
New software is to be introduced that will automatically block 100,000 “unambiguous” search terms which lead to illegal content on the two search engines but child protection campaigners warned that the reforms fail to tackle the “dark corners of the internet” where paedophiles operate.
Following a Downing Street summit with internet companies, Mr Cameron said he was “confident” that real progress could be made by using the “best brains” to track them down.
“There has been a lot in the news recently about the techniques, ability and brilliance of the people involved in the intelligence community and GCHQ and the NSA in America,” he told BBC Radio 2.
“That expertise is going to be brought to bear to go after these revolting people sharing these images on the dark net and making them available more widely.”
Britain’s National Crime Agency is joining forces with America’s FBI in a new transatlantic taskforce to target paedophiles who use encrypted networks online.
Mr Cameron added: “This is a day when we can make some real progress against the absolute evil of child abuse and what happens on the internet.”
“The next stage is now to go after the dark net where people are sharing images peer to peer away from the Googles and the Microsofts. Again there is a lot more we can do, working with the industry, making sure we have got law enforcement which have got all the modern technological tools at their disposal and we will go after these people and arrest them and bang them up as well.
“The point is that you use technology which is able to get into the dark internet, which is able to decrypt encrypted files and that is able to find out what is going on.
“Like all these things, if you put in the resources and the effort, if you use the best brains … if you take those brains and apply it to the problem of tackling child abuse online you will get results.”