Firms scan PCs for child sex images

London

THE first alarm came within a week. It meant an Ericsson employee had used a company computer to view images categorised by law enforcement as child sexual abuse. "It was faster than we would have wanted," says the company's chief legal officer Nina Macpherson.

In a bid to ensure none of its 114,000 staff worldwide were using company equipment to view illegal content, in 2011 the Swedish mobile networks pioneer installed scanning software from Netclean Technologies. While many companies since then have adopted similar measures, few have been willing to discuss their experience publicly.