National Child Victim Identification Program
The National Child Victim Identification Program (NCVIP) is the world's largest database of child pornography, maintained by the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the United States Department of Justice and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) for the purpose of identifying victims of child abuse.[1][2]
Development of the database began in 1999, and it was launched in 2003. It contains images contributed by the FBI, Secret Service, Postal Inspection Service, and several other organizations.[1] In March 2005, the Justice Department's database with merged with that of the NCMEC.[3] The database uses image analysis software developed by LTU Technologies to detect victims.[4]
As a security measure, police are not allowed to manually browse the database, and they cannot identify victims by name. Instead, they are given contact information for higher-level officers who have security clearance.[5]
The program was created by Andrew Oosterban, head of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Justice Department. [6]
References
- ^ a b Houston Chronicle, "Government developing huge child porn database". 4 April 2003
- ^ CBS News, "Combatting Kiddie Porn", 6 April 2003
- ^ Statement of Chris Swecker Before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, 6 April 2006
- ^ LTU Technologies, press release, 24 March 2003
- ^ The Register, "US.gov builds huge child porn database", 14 April 2003
- ^ Symposium on Online Child Exploitation