A Pornhub Chatbot Stopped Millions From Searching for Child Abuse Videos
www.wired.com
Every time someone in the UK searched for child abuse material on Pornhub, a chatbot appeared and told them how to get help.

A trial program conducted by Pornhub in collaboration with UK-based child protection organizations aimed to deter users from searching for child abuse material (CSAM) on its website. Whenever CSAM-related terms were searched, a warning message and a chatbot appeared, directing users to support services. The trial reported a significant reduction in CSAM searches and an increase in users seeking help. Despite some limitations in data and complexity, the chatbot showed promise in deterring illegal behavior online. While the trial has ended, the chatbot and warnings remain active on Pornhub’s UK site, with hopes for similar measures across other platforms to create a safer internet environment.

  • where_am_iEnglish
    11·
    9 months ago

    Also: “they actually track that I was searching for something illegal, let me rather not do it again”.

    • _cnt0English
      82·
      9 months ago

      Like anything on the internet wasn’t tracked. If need be people will resort to physically exchanging storage media.

      • Blueberrydreamer@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
        131·
        9 months ago

        But having that tracking shown to you has a very powerful psychological effect.

        It’s pretty well established that increasing penalties for crimes does next to nothing to prevent those crimes. But what does reduce crime rates is showing how people were caught for crimes, making people believe that they are less likely to ‘get away with it’.

        Being confronted with your own searches is an immediate reminder that the searcher is doing something illegal, and that they are not doing so unnoticed. That’s wildly different than abstractly knowing that you’re probably being tracked somewhere by somebody among billions of other people.

        • _cnt0English
          41·
          9 months ago

          And where is the quantification and qualification for that? Spoiler: it’s not in the article(s) and not one google search away. Does Nintendo succeed in stopping piracy with its show trials? If you have a look around here, it more looks like people are doubling down.

          • Blueberrydreamer@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
            2·
            9 months ago

            I mean, I know Google has been shitty lately, but Wikipedia isn’t hard to find: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deterrence_(penology)

            I’d wager Nintendo has put some fear into a few folks considering developing emulators, but that’s the only comparison to be made here. The lack of any real consequences for individuals downloading roms is why so many are happy to publicly proclaim their piracy.

            Now, I bet if megaupload added an AI that checked users uploads for copyrighted titles and gave everyone trying to upload them a warning about possible jail time, we’d see a hell of a lot less roms and movies on mega.

            • _cnt0English
              1·
              9 months ago

              Btw, you might want to read that wiki page in full yourselves.

            • _cnt0English
              1·
              9 months ago

              Now, I bet if megaupload added an AI that checked users uploads for copyrighted titles and gave everyone trying to upload them a warning about possible jail time, we’d see a hell of a lot less roms and movies on mega.

              It would simply obsolete megaupload. Sharing platforms come and go. If one distribution channel stops working, people will use (or create) another.

              • Blueberrydreamer@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
                11·
                9 months ago

                Obviously, most of Mega’s traffic is piracy, they have no interest in doing that. The point is it’s an actual comparison instead of the nonsense you brought up.

                Of course no individual site is going to singlehandedly stop criminal acts. Glad you agree it would be exactly as effective as I suggested.