RIGHTS: Groups Come Together to Save Children From On-line Predators

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Kimberly Shen

BANGKOK, Apr 18 2005 (IPS) - Children’s organisations are disturbed that an increasing number of children are being sexually abused on-line. For that reason they have come together to call on technology companies to make the Internet a safer place for kids.

”It’s an urgent call because the images of abuse will accompany children for the rest of their lives," said Carmen Melania Madrinan, the executive director of ECPAT International. ECPAT stands for End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Exploitation.

Madrinan stressed that these images are ”infinitely replicable" and "live forever", causing much distress to the abused children.

”If photography and videoing is involved, because of its permanence in terms of images and videos, victims find it very hard to come to terms with their trauma. Of the millions of images of child abuse that Interpol reports to be circulating online, for example, so far only 297 of the children abused to make these images have actually been located,” she told a press conference on Monday.

At the press conference, ECPAT launched the global ‘Make IT Safe’ campaign together with the London-based Children’s Charities Coalition for Internet Safety and children’s groups from 67 countries. The ‘Make IT Safe’ website has an online petition, which urges those who surf in to sign the call to computer and telecoms industries to set minimum global standards to protect children from pornography and possible abuse.

So far, about 157 organisations have already signed the petition.

ECPAT believes that those in the IT industry, from Internet service providers, mobile phone companies, software companies, to manufacturers of interactive technologies, have the responsibility to ensure that their ”goods and services are safe for children and young people everywhere” noted Madrinan.

Young people represent the largest group of Internet users globally, with more than 13 million regularly surfing the Internet, a one-third increase compared to the year before.

In an IT industry survey done in Thailand last year, more than half of the Internet users were young Thais between the age of 15 and 24 and more than 10 percent were between the ages of six and 14.

In Japan, every one in four children has a mobile phone, while in Africa mobile phone lines outnumber the subscription of fixed lines with more than 80 percent of users being young Africans.

”There’s no doubt that these online and interactive technologies will bring great benefits, enhancing the spread of information, education, creation and leisure entertainment,” said Madrinan.

But she warned that there is also a dangerous side to this – one that involves illegal and often harmful exchanges made convenient by modern technology.

With more than 300 million users, Asia has the largest number of the world’s online users. Nonetheless, there is a low-level of understanding about the medium among adults.

In a survey done two years ago in Thailand, ECPAT said parents were not aware of their children’s online activities and children who had sexual experiences online did not speak to parents or teachers about their situation.

”Young people and children in need or in distress often look to the Internet to find affection and support from unknown people,” ECPAT International’s Asia youth representative Sangeet Shirodkar said in a statement. ”A number of children are getting attracted to these chat rooms and later land up being exploited.”

Added Shirodkar: ”IT industries must do much more to make the chat rooms safe and to block the transmission of illegal photos, videos and messages.”

”The industry should also take responsibility for educating young people about the dangers of chat rooms and of circulating personal details and photos via cell phones.”

At the London launch of the ‘Make IT Safe’ campaign, British internet safety expert John Carr said: ”Children are constant and large-scale users of the internet, yet daily across the world they are being exposed to harmful or damaging materials online.”

”We continue to read of tragic instances of children being abused by sexual predators where the Internet played a key part in facilitating the initial contact that led to the abuse,” added Carr.

He also hit out at the IT industry for turning a blind eye to children using the Internet.

”When dealing with issues such as spam, viruses and other threats, the Internet and online industries have shown a great willingness and a great ability to come together to develop common technical standards and protocols and to agree common, effective means of promoting them,” he said. ”This has simply not happened in the field of child protection. This must change, and soon.”

To ECPAT’s disappointment, the current U.N. Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice that started in Bangkok on Monday does not include in its main proceedings any specific section to address crimes against children.

”This is especially notable as the U.N. secretary general has acknowledged the need to address growing threats to children and called himself a global U.N. study on violence against children which would be presented in 2006,” said Madrinan.