Microsoft's work to help combat child pornography online using photo-matching software began in 2012 with a partnership with NetClean. A year later, the software giant broadened that effort by initiating a related project aiming to remove child abuse images from the web in collaboration with other technology companies including Facebook, Google, and Twitter.

Today, Facebook announced that it will team up with Microsoft and other industry partners in November to develop new tools designed to help organizations block child grooming online. The social networking giant did not provide further details about the planned alliance, but that effort seems to be building upon its previous initiatives conducted as part of its anti-child exploitation push. Those efforts include Facebook's collaborations with various groups like Tech Coalition, the Internet Watch Foundation, and the WePROTECT Global Alliance to End Child Exploitation Online.

The firm also explained how it worked in the past year to help maintain the safety of children, at least on its platform. Facebook says it has been working to proactively identify child nudity and previously unknown child abuse content using artificial intelligence, machine learning, and photo-matching tools. It then reports potentially exploitative content to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Facebook claims that it was able to take down 8.7 million pieces of content on the service that it found to be in violation of its standards against child exploitation during the previous quarter. Its upcoming tie-up with Microsoft is expected to bolster that effort.