Google scans e-mails for possessing child pornography

Google, the mega corporation specializing in Internet-related services and products that got its start in 1998 as a lowly search engine, is being credited with providing a cyber-tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that led to the arrest of a previously convicted child abuser from Houston who has now been charged with possession of child pornography.

Authorities in Houston said that explicit child porn images of a young girl were detected by Google in John Henry Skillern’s e-mail, according to an August 4 report from CBS News.

It's common knowledge that Google scans your Gmail content to better target you with ads. But when the company recently turned over a Gmail user to authorities for possessing child pornography, it also shined a spotlight on the question of how much privacy you can have on the service.

Google's automatic scanning software includes the ability to detect photographs of this nature. How that works, exactly, Google is not saying, since the company doesn't want to give away its secrets while possibly helping other sex offenders learn how to duck the software.

After detecting photographs Google tipped off the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to the email and picture. Armed with the evidence, Houston police arrested Skillern.

"He was trying to get around getting caught, he was trying to keep it inside his email," said Detective David Nettles of the Houston Metro Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. "I can't see that information, I can't see that photo, but Google can."

Police obtained a search warrant and found other child pornography samples on Skillern's tablet and phone. Texts and emails in which Skillern discussed his interest in children were also discovered.

Police later said that Skillern, a registered sex offender convicted of assaulting a young boy nearly 20 years ago, had child pornography on his phone and tablet, as well as text messages and emails that expressed interest in child porn. He's currently being held on $US200,000 bail and is charged with one count of possession and one count of promotion of child porn material.