RIGHTS: Global Response Needed to Combat Internet Child Abuse

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Sep 14 2001 (IPS) - Of late, Indonesia’s police have put those operating child pornography websites on notice: they will be tracked down.

The authorities were pushed to such action following revelations from U.S. officials in August about an Indonesian link to one of the world’s largest commercial child pornography networks. Indonesian webmasters, according to U.S. officials, were among those identified in the network that was broken up.

In Japan, on the other hand, the police have a clearer picture about the Internet serving as a linchpin for paedophile networks. According to the National Police Agency, almost 50 of the 319 Internet crimes logged during the first half of this year involved “buying sex with minors.”

“Other Internet-related crimes included 55 possible violations of child-pornography laws,” according to a media report.

These are but two examples of how Asian countries are coming to terms with the darker side of Internet, as a medium assisting those driven to sexual abuse of children. Currently, there are over 2,000 paedophile sites located in many countries across the world containing “paedophile material or promoting sex-related tourism,” according to a study done this year by an anti-paedophile organisation in Sicily, Rome.

“There are actually two related issues with the Internet: the first is the distribution of pornographic materials of children; the other is online solicitation of children by paedophiles,” says Brenda Platt, spokeswoman for the Bangkok-based ECPAT International, a prominent child rights group lobbying to end child prostitution and child trafficking.

“For many years now, ECPAT has considered child pornography to be a problem that needs to be addressed; the Internet has increased this necessity,” she adds.

And South and East Asia societies cannot ignore the fact that it is their children who are appearing in the recent production of child pornography, according to an ECPAT study on children and the Internet.

“There are questions about where visual child pornography is being produced. Common belief is that many images are decades old and the recent pictures are produced in South and East Asia,” the study reveals.

“Child pornography has turned to the Internet as a medium where paedophiles and pimps contact each other, exchange information on bulletin boards about their sexual interest in children, post links to teen porn sites and pass around photos in newsgroups,” writes Alecks Pabico, of the respected Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism, in a paper presented during a seminar here in late August.

Online solicitation, on the other hand, evolves out of connections made in Internet chat-rooms frequented by children. Often, paedophiles pursue an activity called “grooming,” a process where they develop a relationship with a child met in a chat-room, and then solicit personal information, deliver gifts and subsequently send invitations to meet.

According to Anilkumar Samtani, assistant professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, children unwittingly contribute to the violation of their own privacy when participating in online communication.

“The Internet can be and has been used to entice children to join groups of dubious origins or with questionable aims,” states Samtani, in a paper presented at the Bangkok seminar last month on ‘The Impact on Children of the Internet and New Media’.

“Quite apart from the solicitation of children into child pornography, the availability of pornographic material that can be accessed by children can also be viewed as a transgression on the rights of children,” he adds.

However, Pabico admits, monitoring child pornography is difficult. “Investigation requires membership via credit card and password verification. Culprits are also protected by anonymous, encrypted communications.”

Then there are other obstacles, such as the “inadequacy of media reporting” on the crimes against children in cyberspace and political apathy, he says.

What happened in the Philippines last year – of two cases of online child pornography – drive home this point. Although reported to law enforces, it “did not result in any charges flied against the alleged website operators,” he adds.

“The websites — Paradise, Lolita and Lollipop — featured Asian children, including possibly Filipinos, in varying nude poses and sexual acts.”

For Pabico, lack of media coverage will result in further child abuse. “Unreported, violations against the rights of children will only continue unabated.”

What is required, he adds, is for journalists to study the nature and dimension of online child pornography. “The surreptitious character of cybercrimes will definitely require knowledge of the Internet’s technical side.”

But to achieve decisive results, Samtani underscores the need for an international response given the global nature of Internet. “The effective investigation and successful prosecution of those who make child pornography available on the Internet require international collaboration. Since the technology used is global, the response must be global.”

What occurred in 1997, in fact, illustrates the idea he has in mind. That year, a computer child pornography ring operating in 21 countries was uncovered. “To bring law enforcement to bear on the ring required an unprecedented level of cooperation between the police and investigators in many countries,” he says.

According to Platt, the ECPAT spokeswoman, the current effort to build a body of international legislation is due to be taken up during the Second World Congress against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, due to be held in December in Japan.

Internet service providers (ISPs) also have a distinct role to combat such child abuse, says Pabico. “Logs can trace specific calling line numbers to specific IP (Internet Protocol) addresses that are vital in prosecuting cybercrimes against children.”

ISPs, however, are not bound to cooperate and may also be reluctant to do so, since it raises such sensitive issues as “privacy concerns” of their clients.

To circumvent that, Pabico argues for a self-regulatory body from among ISPs and content providers to “enforce and oversee” implementation of codes of conduct that stresses “zero-tolerance of child pornography.”