Bing Introduces Child Porn Warning -- But Google Rejects It

The Internet's two most popular search engines both want to curb traffic to websites hosting child porn. But each are using decidedly differently methods to do so.

On Saturday, Microsoft announced that it planned to implement a new mechanism to fight child pornography by creating a pop-up warning when someone searches for illegal images of child porn on Bing, The Guardian reports. However, Google, which owns the largest share of online search traffic, has decided not to include the new program in its search engine.

“Child abuse imagery is illegal and we have a zero tolerance policy to it," a Google spokesperson said in an email in The Huffington Post on Tuesday. "We use purpose-built technology and work with child safety organizations like the Internet Watch Foundation to find, remove and report it, because we never want this material to appear in our search results. We are working with experts on effective ways to deter anyone tempted to look for this sickening material.”

Microsoft's new program consists of a pop-up that reads "‘Warning! Child abuse material is illegal," and a link to Stop It Now!, a child abuse prevention website that provides counseling and other anti-abuse resources. The move came after British Prime Minister David Cameron promised to crack down on Internet service providers that allowed access to such images.

"These messages show them they are not anonymous. Half would be put off by this," John Carr, a government advisor on online child safety, told The Daily Mail.

So why isn't Google taking part in this program? Google would not answer that question directly, but it's not as if Google hasn't taken its own steps. Google has designed its own anti-child porn procedures, and announced that it was committing around $5 million to fight child pornography in June. Google tags images of child porn and gives each photo a special ID, which is used to help find and eradicate duplicate images. Google also plans to share the technology it's working on with law enforcement and non-profits organizations.