Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL and two other US Internet companies are joining forces to fight the distribution of child pornography on the Web.
The companies - which have co-operated in the past to battle viruses, spam and identity theft - said they will work with the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) on the new effort.
"We believe it is possible to increase the chance that child predators will be caught and provide a deterrent to those who would be tempted to exploit children on the Internet," said John Ryan, chief counsel at Time Warner`s AOL.
Other participants in the effort, known as the Technology Coalition at NCMEC, include EarthLink and United Online members, who are scheduled to testify before Congress today, have pledged $1 million in combined initial funding.
Ryan said the coalition`s first order of business is to attack the distribution of illicit images of children on the Web by creating a database of signatures - or codes that identify known pornographic images - so that Internet service providers can spot them and stop them from being shared.
The group will also research and develop tools for law enforcement in addition to studying the technology that predators use to exploit children and to conceal their activity.
NCMEC`s CyberTipline collects reports of child sexual exploitation. NCMEC has assisted law enforcement with more than 119 800 missing child cases, resulting in the recovery of more than 102 200 children.
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