A new Internet child porn filter designed to block access to sites showing child porn was introduced May 17 by Scandinavian telecom Telenor and Sweden's National Criminal Investigation Department.
Telenor will handle the technological side of the filter while the NCID's Sexual Assaults against Children and Child Pornography Unit will oversee regular updates of the program, the two operations said in their joint announcement.
"In Norway, we have received a lot of positive feedback from our well-functioning and efficient cooperation with the police service," said Telenor head of information Moniqa Lofstedt in a statement. "We are therefore pleased to be able to offer the same solution in Sweden, thereby contributing to prevent further distribution of child pornography on the Internet."
Telenor said the new filter is based on a solution they developed for Norway's National Criminal Investigation Service last September. Swedish police will offer current and updated information to Telenor about sites violating Swedish child porn law, and Telenor will block all further traffic to such sites. Users trying to access the porn sites will be redirected to a site providing general information about the new filter.
"This is a genuine crime prevention initiative," said Peter Bjork, a police inspector at Sweden's NCID, in another statement. "The filter will enable us to stop a great number of people from accessing sites containing child pornography, and we will also be able to protect regular Internet users from unintentionally accessing such sites. Through a cooperation between various players in society we are able to enhance the effectiveness of our crime prevention efforts."
All Telenor customers in Sweden can use the new filter, Lofstedt said, while adding that the company hopes others in Sweden get together on further child porn fighting measures. "We are aware that a number of Internet providers are developing similar solutions, and we would welcome a cooperative effort in the industry," she said in her statement. "Other providers abroad and at home will soon be introducing similar solutions, and together we will deal a serious blow to commercial distributors of child pornography."
