In an effort to prevent the spreading of material containing child sexual abuse over the internet, TeliaSonera has launched a free service allowing operators and Internet Service Providers the ability to deny their users access to web sites containing this type of material. The product has been developed in cooperation with NetClean, a Swedish company earlier supported by Childhood.

"Childhood is delighted that one of the projects we have previously supported, NetClean Technologies, and one of our founding members, TeliaSonera, are finding ways to establish a strategic cooperation within an area that we know is both important and possible to influence. " says Gunilla von Arbin, Secretary General, World Childhood Foundation.

NetClean is the world leading company when it comes to develop tools to support every aspect to protect children online. NetClean has a wide range of experience in the field of combating child sexual abuse content online and develops its product's in cooperation with police forces worldwide. NetClean also has a close cooperation with NGO's, such as World Childhood Foundation.

TeliaSonera International Carrier (TSIC) is a global provider of IP-services with a network spanning around the globe. A considerable amount of all internet traffic takes place in TSIC's network. Taking a stand against child sexual abuse content online is an important part of TeliaSonera's corporate social responsibility and with its global IP-network the company is in a good position to considerably prevent the further spreading of material containing child sexual abuse.

“Launching a service that prevents the spreading of this type of material is an important step toward protecting the safety of children all over the world. We now hope that our customers, operators and ISPs, join forces with us and activate this service toward their end-users”, says Malin Frenning, President Telia Sonera International Carrier.

The service is based on a solution provided by the Swedish company NetClean and uses a dynamic and comprehensive list from the UK-based Internet Watch Foundation. The list contains live child sexual abuse URL's. Internet Watch Foundation continuously identifies and registers web sites containing child sexual abuse material.

“We are the first carrier to launch this type of solution in an international IP-network and we sincerely hope that our colleagues within the industry join this initiative”, Malin Frenning continues.

This is how the service works:

The service denies end users access to previously identified web sites containing material with child sexual abuse images. This means that if a user, willingly or not, tries to access such a page, he or she will instead be confronted with a stop sign, explaining why the page is not available for viewing. The service has been developed together with the company NetClean and the identified URLs are continuously updated by the independent organisation Internet Watch Foundation.

TeliaSonera International Carrier www.teliasoneraic.com

Netclean www.netclean.com

Internet Watch Foundation www.iwf.org.uk