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Technology

Software agent targets chatroom paedophiles

By Duncan Graham-Rowe

20 March 2004

PAEDOPHILES attempting to “groom” children in internet chatrooms can now be detected by a computer program.

The program works by putting on a convincing impression of a young person taking part in a chatroom conversation. At the same time it analyses the behaviour of the person it is chatting with, looking for classic signs of grooming: paedophiles pose as children as they attempt to arrange meetings with the children they befriend.

Called ChatNannies, the software was developed in the UK by Jim Wightman, an IT consultant from Wolverhampton in the West Midlands. It creates thousands of sub-programs, called nanniebots, which…

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