Google is in the process of creating a database of child sexual abuse images in order to help law enforcement agencies in the fight against child pornography.  This database collects “encrypted fingerprints” of these images in order to track the source of these images and take actions against offenders.  John Carr, an Internet Safety Advisor, says that Google should be congratulated for their efforts in reducing child pornography and hopes that this project will gain traction in diminishing the amount of child pornography as well as the number of offenders.

Google’s actions are widely considered as thoughtful and charitable but Milton Friedman, author of Corporate Ethics and Corporate Governance, might beg to differ.  Google’s decision to fund a project against child pornography would be a “social responsibility”, but Friedman says that the only “social responsibility” a company has is “to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud” (Friedman, 2007).  From Friedman’s point of view, Google is “taxing” its customers and using this money to fund an individual’s, in this case a Google executive’s, “social responsibilities”.  From my point of view, Google’s actions in funding this database to reduce child sexual abuse images is more of a marketing decision.  Google’s decision to spend money on this venture may have been to promote awareness of the company and thus attract more customers, which ultimately is in line with the one “social responsibility” of a company: to make profit.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymagid/2013/06/17/google-unleashes-new-weapon-and-millions-of-dollars-to-fight-child-porn/