Photodna

At one time or another, law enforcement agencies find themselves investigating child sexual abuse material. Now more than ever there are a variety of ways in which this material is distributed amongst persons and online. It has become a priority to provide investigators with the tools necessary to identify and report on these materials. 

Photo forensics plays an important role in investigations. Increased access to electronic devices and growing social media platforms mean photos can be an important factor in an investigation.

Digital image forensics is the process of identifying and analyzing digital images for the purpose of providing legal evidence. This process can be used to investigate a wide variety of crimes, including child abuse, identity theft, and copyright infringement. Today’s digital era has caused images and videos to become a source of information and entertainment [1].

When conducting an investigation involving multimedia, the quantities of files can be quite overwhelming especially when they include Child Exploitation Material (CEM) and Child Sexual Assault Material (CSAM). It is not just the CEM or CSAM that is included in the collection or search, typically there are tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of files including images and videos, that have to be sorted through. Not only can the number of files be daunting, but the reasons for conducting the intense file filtering also have multiple purposes.

Digital Forensic Investigators and Examiners need to be able to find evidence quickly and one of the ways that ADF provides this capability is using PhotDNA.