The National Center on Sexual Exploitation is thrilled to present Canopy with the 2021 Technology Solutions Award for their innovative filtering software.
Without a doubt, we live in almost a completely digital world—both adults and youth alike use the Internet to work, to learn, and to connect and play with others. But with the Internet comes not just the ability to grow, to socialize, and to uplift. It’s also rife with dangers, particularly to the most vulnerable: children and teenagers. One study found that 95% of teenagers own a smartphone, and 45% said they were online “almost constantly.”
Over the past 18 months, so much of life has moved online, making it even more important that parents adopt the right safety solutions for this digital world. Children and teens are spending more time online than ever before, leaving parents and teachers overwhelmed and without the tools or support they need to help protect vulnerable youth from online dangers such as pornography.
Technology doesn’t have to be confusing or dangerous. With Canopy, parents can rest easy knowing their children are safe, no matter where their digital adventures take them.
While technology built explicitly for protecting families from the dangers of the Internet is essential in today’s digital world, it’s Canopy’s potential to be used in other innovative and groundbreaking ways that motivated the National Center on Sexual Exploitation to award Canopy with the Technology Solutions Award, for their innovative filtering software that scans and stops pornographic content on the Internet in real time.
What is Canopy?
Canopy is a technology company with cutting-edge filtering capabilities. Their software uses advanced computing technology, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, to recognize and filter out online pornographic content in real time. Canopy’s initial product is a digital parenting app that is designed to protect families from the worst of the Internet.  In addition to the Internet filter, Canopy has other features you can’t get anywhere else, such as Sexting Deterrence (which scans photos saved to a device to prevent sexting) and Removal Prevention (which ensures Canopy can’t be deleted or disabled without parental permission).
Their innovation team, based in Israel, has also developed tools to help technology companies and law enforcement agencies identify child sexual abuse material (CSAM), relieving human moderators and agents of the need to manually scan images of abuse and violence themselves. This new tool can meaningfully reduce human exposure to traumatizing content. The software can scan a terabyte of data in 20 minutes, which would permit law enforcement agents to more quickly isolate evidence and thereby increase the number of cases they can handle.
How Can Canopy Change Our Digital Landscape?
The potential for this technology is vast! It already is being used in partnership with a major tech company to scan and detect CSAM content when it is uploaded to their platform—making it quick and easy to flag and remove such material almost instantaneously.
These advances have the potential to deliver a better future, one where CSAM does not proliferate across the Internet, where families can rest easy knowing they are protected from pornographic content, and where law enforcement and government agencies are given the tools they need to combat this scourge in new and helpful ways.
Read more about how Canopy works and their mission here.
Canopy is proof that technology can help make the online world safer and fun for everyone, including young children and teens who need the Internet now more than ever. It is also proof that technology can and should be used to directly combat sexual exploitation online.
We want to recognize Canopy for their amazing advances. This technology already safeguards more than 2 million devices and 4,000+ schools around the world. We know Canopy will help shape the digital world we live in into a better, safer world for everyone.
Use code CESE to get 30 days free and 15% off forever at canopy.us/cese today!
