Italy became the first European country to adopt a Microsoft system for combating child pornography on the Internet, something the government and the computer firm believe the whole continent is set to take up.
At a news conference on Monday, the Italian police's special communications unit said the Child Exploitation Tracking System (CETS), which is already in use in Canada and Indonesia, will speed up its investigations into Web pornography by 80 percent.
"In substance, we want to oppose pedophile rings with an international network of cyber-police," said the head of the police postal and communications squad, Domenico Vulpiani.
Microsoft developed the system after a Canadian police officer working in the field wrote to the company for help in what investigators say is a constantly increasing field of crime which preys on young users of the Internet.
A spokesman for the software giant said Britain and Spain were likely to adopt the system -- a database to help investigators sift through suspect Web site and electronic communications -- in the coming months and that five other European countries were not far behind.
Microsoft has spent $7 million developing the system and is giving it free-of-charge to governments.
Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited.
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