A user connects to the Internet in a cybercafé in Brasília. The Federal Police Department of Brazil has recentely launched an initiative to combat cybercrimes such as child pornography. (EVARISTO SA/AFP/Getty Images)

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil – The fight against child pornography has gone high-tech in Brazil, where the Federal Police Department created a space on its Web site where people can report – even anonymously – sites containing improper content.

The newest addition to the Federal Police Department’s Web site – www.dpf.gov.br – also gives users a place to report Web sites that contain material regarding hate crimes and genocide. In the first week of its release on Nov. 12, the project called “Network Angels” (“Anjos da Rede” in Portuguese) received 400 notifications from concerned citizens regarding alleged cybercrimes.

Once a Web site’s address is reported on the police Web site, the police software visits the site in question. It downloads and screens the text and images.

The content is analyzed with information stored in a database. The system identifies possible similarities with material collected in previous investigations. After the filtering, the computer creates a results document that is reviewed by law enforcement personnel.

The preliminary results showed the process is 80% reliable.

“The automation of this process provided great advantages,” says Stenio Santos Sousa, the chief of the Human Rights Division of the Federal Police. “Analysts no longer have to get sick having to view such offensive images.”

The Network Angels program also reduces the number of cases classified as “false positive.” In Brazil, about 90% of pedophilia reports on the Internet are false.

The software that’s being used by the Federal Police Department was developed by SaferNet Brazil, an initiative responsible for the centralization of the incoming, processing, forwarding and online monitoring of reports on crimes against human rights on the Internet.

The National Center for Cyber Crimes Reports (in Portuguese, “Central Nacional de Denúncias de Crimes Cibernéticos”) is leading the fight against cybercrimes. In the first half of 2009, 24,400 cases involving child pornography on the Internet were reported in Brazil.

The 24,400 cases represent 55% of the total reports, followed by hate crimes (22%) and neo-Nazi activity (5%). In the first half of 2006, there were an estimated 4,900 reports of child pornography on the Internet in Brazil.

Helena Oliveira, the manager of the programs on violence against children and juveniles of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Brazil is pleased with how law enforcement is fighting crimes against children on the Internet. According to UNICEF, on average, five children a day are exploited in Brazil – and that’s just based on what’s reported to authorities.

“We still have much to evolve, but such actions have contributed to place Brazil ahead in terms of fighting violence against children,” Oliveira says.

Brazil has 53.9 million Internet users – and growing – which has caused the Office of Public Prosecutor (MPF) to make agreements with several companies to prevent crimes in the virtual universe.

MPF has signed a deal with Internet providers, obligating them to store IP addresses and access logs for three years. The information would be given to the proper authorities only by a court order.

“It is not up to the providers to judge or denounce contents from their hosting sites,” says Jaime Wagner, a representative of the providers for the Management Committee for the Internet in Brazil. “However, we are complying with our ethical obligation to cooperate with the law.”