By Feizal Samath
COLOMBO, Sep 9 1998 (IPS)

Pornography on the Internet hinders efforts by rights groups to corner child sex criminals, even with tightened world-wide laws against the abuse of youngsters.

The global computer link hosts no less than 600 advertisements on Sri Lankan children and invites foreign paedophiles to enjoy sex with children of any age of their choice.

Is the choice wider than in the rest of the world? “Oh! I don’t know. There may be dozens; hundreds of web sites offering child pornography and child services,” said Herve Berger, executive director of the Bangkok-based ECPAT or End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking of Children.

Berger says the Internet is used to organise meetings between paedophiles, offer information on child sex or pornography such as ‘who is the best one to go to,’ and favourite hotels for paedophiles. Even the names of child prostitutes and prices are provided.

On a visit to Colombo this week to meet local child rights groups and ECPAT’s Sri Lanka partner, Berger said that the organisation along with Interpol – the international police outfit based in Paris – are looking at ways of stemming child sex and child pornography on the Internet.

Recently, Interpol hosted a meeting with a group of 50 children’s experts to examine the problem of network sex. One of the decisions taken was to convene an inter-governmental meeting on child pornography in 2000, to get backing from governments for a course of action.

A German company, working with ECPAT and Interpol, has also developed a new anti-virus software that can identify child pornography files on the Internet. Efforts are on to get Internet service providers to see what they can do to help cut the flow of abusive material.

“It is a difficult task and we are looking at ways on how we could tackle this problem,” Berger said. “The number of Internet users has grown to 200 million today from only three million about three years ago. So, you see the extent of the problem.”

Like many countries in Asia, tourism is a big industry in Sri Lanka. But while drawing thousands of foreign tourists each year to its golden beaches and historical sites, the country has become a haven for foreign paedophiles who find young boys easy prey in a nation where the majority of the people are poor.

“Because of our colonial mentality, the white man is still privileged and such circumstances favour the exploitation of the poor children,” explained Arun Tampoe, a lawyer and child rights activist.

At least three foreigners have been convicted in Sri Lanka for child sex offences while another foreign paedophile – wanted in other countries for the same offence – was deported to his home country, Switzerland, and tried, convicted and jailed.

A few other foreigners, arrested for similar offences here, have jumped bail and sneaked out of the country, prompting tighter laws that keep alleged offenders under custody until completion of trial.

Child abusers are not allowed bail and such criminal cases are being expedited, in contrast to proceedings before which take anything between a few months to a couple of years.

In recent decades, large and well-organised child sex industries have emerged particularly in the poor countries of Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe.

In Asia, more than 650,000 children below 16 years work as prostitutes, many of them in China and India. But the problem is also gaining ground in the Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Vietnam and Cambodia.

Berger, a former Amnesty International employee with wide experience in human rights and children’s rights, says ECPAT is the only agency monitoring a plan of action recommended at the 1996 Stockholm summit attended by 122 countries to endorse an agenda to combat child sex and exploitation.

ECPAT is also organising a youth conference, which would probably be held by end 1999 or early 2000, where children would be invited to state their views and suggest solutions on the issue of the exploited child.

During a meeting with local NGOs, Berger agreed with a local journalist that inviting children to an event like this may be unwise in the context of using children to highlight their plight.

Said Berger: “It is a sensitive issue and we have to handle it with care to ensure that children who need privacy won’t be over- exposed to the media. We will allow participation of only those who are willing to state their experiences and offer some practical suggestions to tackle the problem.”

“We want to involve children in our campaign. We want to know what they think; whether we are going about it the right way in combating this menace. We need to listen to their views,” he added.

Despite the higher-technology tools that child sex traders are resorting to today, campaigners say there has been progress in the fight against sexual abusers of children.

Officials with ECPAT’s local partner, PEACE (Protecting Environment and Children Everywhere) said that when it first started its activities in 1990 against child prostitution and abuse in Sri Lanka, it was an unpopular issue and got no support from the public.

“Now PEACE is a household word in Sri Lanka,” said PEACE chairman Maureen Seneviratne. PEACE probed beach prostitution and the involvement of foreign paedophiles, and drew the attention of the authorities to the exploitation of children, she says.

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