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divdiv class=story-body readability=42 span class=story-date#13; span class=date17 November 2013/span#13;span class=time-textLast updated at /spanspan class=time19:01 ET/span#13; #13;/span#13;#13; #13;#13;#13; #13; #13; span class=byline byline-photo img src=http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/53773000/jpg/_53773084_rorycellanjones.jpg alt=Rory Cellan-Jones/span class=byline-nameBy Rory Cellan-Jones/span span class=byline-titleTechnology correspondent/span /span #13; #13; p class=introduction id=story_continues_1Leading search engine companies Google and Microsoft have agreed measures to make it harder to find child abuse images online. /p#13; pAs many as 100,000 search terms will now return no results that find illegal material, and will trigger warnings that child abuse imagery is illegal./p#13; pThe prime minister, who had called for action from the firms, has welcomed the move./p#13; pBut he warned it must be delivered or he would bring forward new legislation./p#13; pIn July, David Cameron called on Google and Microsoft's Bing - which together account for 95% of search traffic - to do more to prevent people getting access to illegal images. /p#13; pHe said that they needed to ensure that searches which were unambiguously aimed at finding illegal images should return no results./p#13; span class=cross-headNew software/span#13; pNow both companies have introduced new algorithms [software instructions] that will prevent searches for child abuse imagery delivering results that could lead to such material./p#13; pGoogle says it was asked by the government to produce no results for around 130 search terms. /p#13; pInstead, it has tweaked its algorithm to produce clean results for more than 13,000 terms in a list that is constantly growing./p#13; pMicrosoft, which in a rare display of unity is working closely with Google on this issue, says its Bing search engine will also produce clean results. /p#13; pThe company said it had always had a zero tolerance attitude to child sexual abuse content and had been putting in place stronger processes to prevent access since the summer./p#13; pLater on Monday, the two companies will join other internet firms at Downing Street for an Internet Safety Summit. /p#13; pThe prime minister said significant progress has been made since his speech in July calling for action, but warned that new legislation could be introduced if the companies failed to deliver./p#13; pHe said in July that Google and Microsoft said blocking search results couldn't be done, that it shouldn't be done… I did not accept that then and I do not accept that now./p#13; span class=cross-head'Missed opportunity'/span#13; pChild protection experts say most illegal abuse images cannot be found via web searches, but are hidden on peer-to-peer networks. /p#13; pa href=http://ceop.police.uk/Documents/ceopdocs/CEOP_TACSEA2013_240613%20FINAL.pdfA June report/a by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) highlighted how the hidden internet helped distributers of child abuse images to evade detection by using a href=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22754061encrypted networks/a and other secure methods./p#13; pGoogle and Microsoft have agreed to work with the National Crime Agency and the Internet Watch Foundation to try to tackle networks which host child abuse images./p#13; pThe two companies are also using their technological expertise to help in the identification of abuse images. /p#13; pMicrosoft's PhotoDNA already allows a photo to be given a unique fingerprint which means it can be tracked as it is shared across the internet. Now Google has developed VideoID which does the same job with videos./p#13; pBoth firms will provide this technology to the National Crime Agency and other organisations to help in the work of finding and detecting those behind the creating and sharing of child abuse images./p#13; pBut critics have accused the government of underfunding online child protection. /p#13; pCeop, which is now part of the National Crime Agency, has been accused of missing a recent opportunity to identify hundreds of people downloading illegal images./p#13; pPolice in Toronto revealed that in 2012 they had shared hundreds of names of British people with Ceop who were alleged to be customers of a Canadian firm that sold videos of young children. /p#13; pThe operation to close down the business saw hundreds of people arrested in Canada and around the world - but none in Britain./p#13; pOn Friday, the National Crime Agency said Ceop had examined the material but it had been classified as being on a low level of seriousness. However, the Agency has now ordered a review of Ceop's handling of the case./p#13; /div/divbrbrcentera href=http://www.wizardrss.comPowered By WizardRSS.com/a | a href=http://www.wizardrss.comFull Text RSS Feed/a | a href=http://www.amazon.com/RFID-Blocking-Cards-Identity-Protector/dp/B00CJHZLEWRFID/a | a href=http://www.wpzonbuilder.comAmazon Affiliate/a/center