Google and Microsoft have agreed upon a set of changes that will see images of child abuse blocked from their search engines for the first time.
Despite the companies saying in the past that it “couldn’t and shouldn’t be done”, the internet giants have now bowed to pressure from concerned parents who have constantly expressed displeasure over the issue.
Illegal content will be blocked from appearing for more than 100,000 queries “that might be related to the sexual abuse of kids”, Google’s chief executive Eric Schmidt told the Daily Mail.
An additional 13,000 search terms will return warning messages at the top of the page telling the user that indecent images of children are illegal and offering advice on where they can get help.
“As important,” Mr Schmidt said, “we will soon roll out these changes in more than 150 languages, so the impact will be truly global.”
Calls for the internet companies to take action against searching for illegal content reached boiling point following the trials of child killers Mark Bridger and Stuart Hazel earlier this year.
Bridger, who murdered five-year-old April Jones, and Hazel, who killed 12-year-old Tia Sharp, both used the internet to search for child abuse images before the killings.
Mr Schmidt said Google has been working with Microsoft and law enforcement agencies since the summer following strong warnings from the Government to take action.
“We’ve listened, and in the last three months put more than 200 people to work developing new, state-of-the-art technology to tackle the problem,” he said.
