Computer program to help police track down pegdophiles - Program detects patterns by cross-checking messaes posted in Internet chat rooms, forums

Computer program to help police track down pedophiles
Program detects patterns by cross-checking messages posted in Internet chat rooms, forums
By Nurit Felter
YNET
March 5, 2008


The Knesset's Finance Committee has approved the allocation of $550,000 to Israel Police for the purchase of a computer program designed to tack down pedophiles, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Wednesday.

The program, which is based on a system that was developed by Microsoft in cooperation with the Toronto police department, has already assisted in the arrest of several pedophiles in the US and Canada.


Using sophisticated logarithms, the program is able to detect patterns by cross-checking messages posted in Internet chat rooms and forums, thus giving investigators new leads and a list of suspects they could not have tracked down otherwise.

According to police data, 30 cases of computer-related sexual offenses were opened in 2007.

Yuval Dror contributed to the report