Google Inc is enlisting the same image-recognition technology the company uses to trace copyright violations on its YouTube video site to fight online child pornography, the company said on Monday.

Google said it is working the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) of Alexandria, Virginia to help automate and streamline how child protection workers troll through millions of pornographic images to identify victims of abuse.

The project is applying so-called video fingerprinting technology, which Google has been urging media copyright holders to adopt as a means for policing widespread piracy of professionally created video programming on the Web.