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NetClean launches in the UK to stop the spread of child sexual abuse images online

London, 16 March 2010: NetClean Technologies today announces the UK launch of its software, NetClean ProActive, which prevents child sexual abuse images being viewed or circulated over business networks. It is designed to tackle the growing problem of child sex abuse on the web by blocking images on both the internet and on removable media, such as USB sticks and CDs, which have not previously been picked up by solutions that only block access to inappropriate websites containing images.

Child sexual abuse on the internet is one of the biggest undiscovered crimes in businesses today with NetClean finding at least one person viewing child sexual abuse images for every 1,000 licenses it installs. In addition, 97% of those who collect child sexual abuse images also exchange these images, according to Child Exploitation & Online Protection Centre (CEOP). This demonstrates a clear need for a solution to help find the abusers, stop content being circulated and ultimately enable the police to identify and investigate these criminals. 

NetClean, which is a member of the UK’s Internet Watch Foundation and has the backing of the World Childhood Foundation founded by H.M. Queen Silvia of Sweden, has designed software to identify child sexual abuse images and videos using image recognition software. NetClean also works in collaboration with police to build a database of images to be blocked.  It is the only technology of its kind in the market and prevents such images being viewed or circulated on any machines on any network.

Christian Sjöberg, CEO at NetClean says: “We are on a mission to reduce child sexual abuse images wherever they exist – on the internet and on any other form of storage, particularly in work environments. Many collectors of child abuse images carry the images with them when they go to the office as they are often family men who think it is safer to view these images at work, because current filters only look for material coming off the internet. 

“We believe everyone has a duty of care to protect the innocent children who have been abused to make these horrific images in the first place, but also every company has a duty to its employees, to reassure them that their systems cannot be misused in this way. Organisations also need to protect their reputation – no business wants to be portrayed as careless or indifferent about their networks being used to allow child abuse images to be viewed or passed around.” 

The NetClean solution for businesses, NetClean ProActive, detects and stops child sexual abuse content before it can enter the company network. It can be deployed either in the network or on every computer as a desktop agent. NetClean ProActive complements existing security solutions and has no impact on network performance or employee productivity.

It can analyse activity on individual machines such as laptops, even when they have been unplugged from a work-based network.  When the machine is reconnected to the network NetClean ProActive picks up and identifies traces of any child sexual abuse images that might have been viewed on the computer during the period the machine was offline.  UK-based Value Add Distributor, Softek has been chosen as NetClean’s channel partner in the UK.

John Carr, a key adviser to the UK Government on internet safety for children says: “NetClean ProActive is a great new product that I hope lots of organisations deploy. Although we’re getting better at detecting child abuse images on the internet and blocking access to the sites that contain them, far too many images are available from other sources, such as filesharing networks. This means abusers can continue to look at these awful and illegal pictures and swap them with like minded people. This often happens at work and with NetClean, companies now have a way of stepping in to help with this most important child protection measure.” 

-ENDS-

For more information, please contact:
Jon White / Alex Brooks
Rocket Communications
+44 (0) 8453 707 024
netclean@rocketcomms.net

About NetClean Technologies
NetClean Technologies is a Swedish based company that develops technical solutions to support every aspect of the protection of children on the Internet.

NetClean has extensive experience in this area and develops its products in cooperation with police authorities around the world.

NetClean works closely with several non-profit organisations, for example the World Childhood Foundation, ECPAT, BRIS and Internet Watch Foundation.

The deployment of a NetClean product is not only a way of demonstrating corporate social responsibility, it is a very real and positive way of helping to protect children around the world.