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International Bulletin - August 1999

Cleaning up the Net: Child Pornography

As the world wires up, police are grappling for a solution to a growing problem: the Internet is unleashing a frightening wave of child pornography.

Circulation of child porn is growing exponentially, according to experts at a recent UNESCO meeting on the issue. A few years ago, Interpol raids on suspected paedophiles turned up a small number of videos and magazines, according to Agnes Fournier de Saint Maur of Interpol's Specialized Crime Unit. Last year, Operation Cathedral, a major international police crackdown on cybersmut, led to the arrests of 96 people in 12 countries, with a half-million images stockpiled in U.S. computers alone.

Experts say the feeling of anonymity in downloading images helps netizens weave intricate networks to exchange pornographic materials This appears to fuel both demand and supply of child porno.

To aid police crackdowns on these net-works, governments are tightening legal loopholes. However, differences in national laws are proving to be an obstacle. In the UK, for example, police cannot effectively attack the source of the materials because about 95 per cent of them comes from abroad. The largest concentration of child porn websites is found in Japan. where it is not an offence to possess and distribute child porn.

Police are also running into a technological barrier: computer encryption codes used to circulate materials secretly. Pressure is building on software companies to reveal these codes, while Internet service providers are coming under fire for not closing dubious websites. Fournier de Saint Maur says that if the computer industry doesn't act fast to clamp down on child porn. "then it may well be that the judicial system will do it for them."

Threats like this are rattling human rights groups. Do we want police setting up guide-lines to censor the Internet? Human rights groups note encryption is not just used by pornographers, but also by political dissidents trying to exercise a basic right: freedom of expression.

Last Modified: June 05, 2010