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11/10/2005:
New online tools in the fight against child abuse (UK)
12/08/2005: ECPAT Spain
prepares three national make-IT-safe projects. (Spain)
12/08/2005: ECPAT España elabora
tres proyectos nacionales para make-IT-safe. (España)
05/05/2005: Netherlands reports big jump
in child pornography spam
28/04/2005: ECPAT
Sweden wins over ‘backbone’ providers
23/04/2005: ECPAT
addresses UN Crime Congress
22/04/2005: Around
the world with make-IT-safe
19-21/04/2005: ECPAT
takes make-IT-safe to Turkey
18/04/2005: UN Special
Rapporteur supports campaign for IT industry to act
to protect children online
18/04/2005: Global
launch for make-IT-safe
New online tools in the fight against
child abuse [UK] (11/10/2005)
Website uses AI to tackle sensitive
issues
An interactive website to tackle child abuse has been
launched by children's charity NSPCC. TalkTown, accessed
via www.talktilitstops.org.uk, is part of the charity's
national 'Talk 'til it stops' campaign.
The site uses artificial intelligence to advise anyone
worried that a child is being abused.
Users are able to ask the town's virtual residents
for help via Lingubot, technology based on a sophisticated
word and phrase pattern recognition system that matches
preprogrammed responses in the Lingubot's knowledge
base with questions typed in by users.
As people interact on the site, analysis tools will
be used to expand the characters' knowledge.
By asking the residents questions, individuals will
be able to start talking to the characters about child
abuse and learn more about the role they can play in
ending cruelty to children.
Stephanie Hughes, NSPCC new media communications manager
said: "We are very excited to have the chance to
use this state-of-the-art technology. It will bring
the Talk 'til it Stops initiative to life in an interactive
and emotionally engaging way."
The site has been designed and built by marketing agency
DNA, with TalkTown's four Lingubots created by Creative
Virtual.
The launch comes alongside an announcement that the
British and Cambodian governments are working in partnership
with Microsoft to tackle child exploitation through
the internet.
A joint training programme in Cambodia's capital, Phnom
Penh, aims to increase local capability and awareness
when dealing with crimes against children. It will be
delivered by members of the UK's Serious Sexual Offences
Unit, IT security experts from Microsoft and legal professionals
from the UK, US, Thailand and Indonesia. The programme
will include training in interviewing child abuse victims,
conducting an online abuse investigation, interviewing
sex offenders and international cooperation in identifying
victims of child sexual abuse.
ECPAT Spain prepares three national
make-IT-safe projects. [Spain] (12/08/2005)
AECPAT Spain reports that is preparing three
nation-wide projects for the make-IT-safe campaign:
• Our work for the child safety is based around
a national campaign called “Nuevas Tecnologías
y Responsabilidad Social” (“New Technologies
and Social Responsibility”). Its main goal is
to prevent the possible abuse of the children when they
use Internet in a bad way. We are getting in touch with
all the places where children can use Internet such
as the Internet Cafes and schools, with advertising
campaigns and meetings with parents to raise public
awareness and to hold IT businesses responsible.
• The work we are doing related to “Lobbying
the IT Industry” in the project “¡Asegúrate
una Buena Conexión!” (“Have a safe
connexion”) consists of research into what Spanish
companies are doing in this sector. Our aim is to make
these companies aware of their responsibilities for
child protection in the use of the Internet, for carrying
out rules and protocols at a global level, for financing
research oriented to the creation of new technologies,
and for supporting educative campaigns.
• What we are doing related to “Lobbying
Governments”, aiming for rules that protect children
from Internet abuse is developing a “quality stamp”
named IQUA. IQUA is an Internet Quality Agency that
would be a meeting point between administration, operators,
users, associations and technicians that work for the
improvement of Internet quality.
ECPAT Spain also aims to encourage IT companies to develop
specific programs to carry the quality stamp, and to
obtain law changes related to child protection in the
use of the Internet.
ECPAT España elabora tres
proyectos nacionales para make-IT-safe. [ España
] (12/08/2005)
ECPAT España presenta un informe sobre
tres proyectos concretos que esta elaborando para la
campaña make-IT-safe, relacionados principalmente
con:
• Seguridad Integral para los Niños
• y con la Sensibilización a la Industria
de la IT
• Sensibilización a los Gobiernos
Éstas son tres de las líneas de trabajo
planteadas en la campaña, sin olvidar el desarrollo
en paralelo del trabajo en el desarrollo de una Coalición
Mundial y la participación en la Búsqueda
de Apoyo Internacional. Estas líneas de trabajo
se concretan en:
• Nuestro trabajo en la Seguridad para los Niños/as,
se basa en una campaña a nivel Nacional concretada
en el Proyecto “Nuevas Tecnologías y Responsabilidad
Social”. Sus objetivos fundamentales son la prevención
del posible daño a menores debido a un mal uso
de Internet. Mediante el contacto en espacios donde
los menores tienen accesos a Internet (los llamados
Ciber Cafés en España), actividades en
escuelas, campañas publicitarias, encuentros
con padres, y fundamentalmente la concienciación
y responsabilización de los empresarios de este
sector pretendemos lograr nuestros objetivos.
• El trabajo que estamos realizando para lograr
Sensibilizar a la Industria de la IT, concretado en
el Proyecto “¡Asegúrate una Buena
Conexión!” consta de una investigación
de la realidad Española de las empresas de este
sector, para responsabilizarlas en la protección
de menores en el uso de Internet, implementando normas
y protocolos a nivel mundial, para que financien investigaciones
orientadas a la creación de nuevas tecnologías
de seguridad y para que apoyen las campañas educativas.
• El trabajo que estamos realizando hacia la
Sensibilización de los Gobiernos para lograr
el desarrollo de leyes que protejan a los menores en
el uso de Internet es, la implementación de un
Sello de Calidad: IQUA. IQUA es la Agencia de Calidad
de Internet, pretende ser un punto de encuentro entre
los diferentes agentes de la red, un referente común
para la Administración, los operadores, los usuarios,
las asociaciones y los técnicos que trabajan
para la mejora y la calidad de Internet,
Y finalmente el contacto con las empresas, el desarrollo
de programas específicos para la implementación
del sello por parte de las mismas empresas del sector.
Siempre hacia el objetivo fundamental de lograr el cambio
de las Leyes para la protección de los menores
en Internet.
Netherlands reports big jump in
child pornography spam
(5/05/2005)
An enormous increase in spam advertising
child pornography led to a 20% rise in charges filed
with the Dutch police last year, according to Netherlands
Internet hotline Meldpunt.
ECPAT Netherlands is a member of Meldpunt, a foundation
which runs Holland’s Internet hotline against
child pornography. In 2004, the hotline filed 4,765
charges of child pornography with the Dutch National
Police (KLPD) and foreign hotlines, up more than 20%
on the previous year. Those charges arose from the 6,322
complaints Meldpunt received in 2004, up more than 5%
on 2003.
Meldpunt’s 2004 annual report says this rise was
due mostly to an enormous increase in spam with child
pornographic content, with reports to the hotline up
fourfold last year. Meldpunt says an increasing number
of Dutch people receive spam which advertises child
pornography. These often include sample photographs
of child pornography and the email refers to a website
with images of children being sexually abused.
Most complaints in 2004 were related to pictorial representation
of sexual abuse of children on foreign sites, especially
websites in the United States, Russia and Korea. Reports
by Meldpunt of child pornography on Russian sites doubled
to 1,371 in 2004, continuing a rising trend of recent
years. The number of reports to the Korean hotline also
went up in 2004 from 326 to 519. However, the number
of reports by Meldpunt to the United States dropped
in 2004 by almost 300 to 1,478, after more than doubling
the year before.
Meldpunt filed 107 charges relating to the distribution
of child pornography and pedosexual offences with the
Dutch National Police (compared to 208 charges in 2003).
Over 60 of these cases actually went to court (compared
to almost 100 cases in 2003). Compared to 2003, the
number of complaints to the KLPD has therefore almost
halved. A reason for this is that in 2004 considerably
fewer complaints were reported about Dutch MSN groups
than in 2003.
ECPAT Sweden wins over ‘backbone’
providers
(28/04/2005)
ECPAT Sweden has scored a major success in
make-IT-safe’s campaign to protect children online.
The group has got all 11 of Sweden’s telecommunications
‘backbone’ providers to agree to block child
pornographic material. Child pornographic sites are
identified initially via ECPAT Sweden’s Hotline.
The Hotline’s software, NetClean Analyze, distinguishes
new material from old, and forwards reports with the
new material to the National Criminal Police and Interpol.
The National Criminal Police verifies from a legal perspective
which of this material should be classified as child
pornography and forwards a list of the relevant URLs
to the backbone provider companies that have agreed
to block such material. The backbone providers then
block the child pornography using the same technique
for dealing with Denial of Service and similar attacks.
To prevent child pornography sites simply changing IP
numbers, the National Criminal Police uses a computer
programme developed by the Stockholm Technical University
to update changed IP numbers every 24 hours. The National
Criminal Police makes a manual check of the changed
IP numbers and, if they are sites carrying child pornography,
the relevant backbone providers are informed to block
that content.
ECPAT Sweden says most surfers who came across child
pornography moved on to other sites without reporting
them because the content was so offensive. Information
ECPAT Sweden receives about questionable sites will
be passed on to a Swedish police unit which tracks child
pornography. In the near future, ECPAT Sweden also plans
to link with other child-pornography hotlines in a joint
database, perhaps also with Interpol's database in Lyon,
France. According to ECPAT Sweden, 118 people who used
credit cards to buy child pornography were arrested
last year in Sweden.
ECPAT addresses UN Crime Congress
(23/04/2005)
ECPAT International raised make-IT-safe’s
goals and issues at the 11th UN Congress on Crime Prevention
and Criminal Justice, held in Bangkok during the week
of the campaign launch. Executive director Carmen Madrinan
addressed one of the plenary sessions on combating computer-related
and cyber crime. ECPAT Secretariat staff also used the
occasion to lobby among the more than 3000 Government,
IT industry, NGO and expert delegates.
- Address to the UN Congress on Crime Prevention and
Criminal Justice plenary session on preventing computer-related
and cyber crimes Bangkok, 23 April 2005. English
(pdf 71Kb)
Around the world with make-IT-safe
(22/04/2005)
In its first week, the make-IT-safe campaign
was taken up by ECPAT and CHIS in Africa, the Americas,
Asia, Europe and Oceania.
ECPAT-Cambodia began its campaign with a press release
outlining make-IT-safe and IT child safety issues in
Cambodia sent to the media and all Government Institutions,
NGOs, and Embassies.
Paniamor in Costa Rica launched make-IT-safe in the
media. The group also wrote seeking support for make-IT-safe
from Rosalía Gil, Minister for Children and Youth,
to Ana Helena Chacón, Deputy Minister for Public
Security, and to all members of the National Commission
Against Sexual Exploitation of Children (CONACOES).
Paniamor will include make-IT-safe as part of its TecnoClub
and Techno Bus projects with teenagers from disadvantaged
urban communities.
In India, Sanlaap and ECPAT’s Asia youth representative
publicised make-IT-safe in the media and began work
on a campaign through Sanlaap’s youth network.
ECPAT Italy has written to Italian NGOs, child care
agencies and government Ministries to support make-IT-safe.
ECPAT Italy media campaign on make-IT-safe resulted
in a major article in the influential daily, La Repubblica,
and was picked up by more than a dozen Italian news
outlets, including online news outlet, Redattore sociale.
ECPAT Netherlands began publicising make-IT-safe in
the Dutch media. The group’s first make-IT-safe
goal is a greater emphasis on the needs of young children
and adolescents in the Dutch Ministry for Economic Affairs
‘safe use of the Internet’ campaign which
now concentrates mainly on virus protection, spyware,
autodialers and spam.
ECPAT New Zealand is publicising make-IT-safe in the
media and lobbying its supporters, child and welfare
agencies, corporations and politicians to sign the online
petition.
In Sweden, ECPAT International youth chair Sandra Atler
and another ECPAT Sweden youth member published a make-IT-safe
article on one of Sweden’s main youth websites,
and promoted an online discussion forum. ECPAT Sweden
launched make-IT-safe publicly as part of Global Youth
Service Day, asking participating youth groups to provide
web links to the online petition.
In Nepal, Maiti Nepal held an information session with
key members of the Government High Level Commission
of Information Technology (HLICT), the Computer Association
of Nepal (CAN), Computer Advanced System (CAS), Internet
Service Providers Association of Nepal (ISPAN) and some
other organizations and individuals. After a very constructive
discussion, the participants decided to form a make-IT-safe
campaign steering committee led by Maiti Nepal to plan
education and prevention work. Maiti Nepal’s campaign
press release was sent to about a dozen of Nepal’s
leading news organisations, drawing wide coverage of
make-IT-safe and child IT safety issues relevant to
Nepal.
In Niger, G-NESE began a campaign to get child rights
groups to sign the make-IT-safe petition and has begun
to lobby the IT industry and government.
ECPAT Taiwan launched its make-IT-safe campaign in association
with a major media event to mark co-operation between
the Taiwan police and ECPAT Taiwan’s Internet
hotline on child pornography.
In Thailand, the ECPAT International media launch gained
coverage from Agence France Press, Inter Press Service,
Associated Press, Reuters, Xinhua and a host of smaller
news services, and from dozens of media outlets, and
online news services and websites around the Asia-Pacific
region. ECPAT International also addressed the 11th
UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice
on the goals of the make-IT-safe campaign, and lobbied
IT industry leaders and government delegates.
In Russia, Stellit began publicising make-IT-safe through
the media. The group plans a make-IT-safe roundtable
with the IT industry and government, as well as research
into the dangers for Russian children and young people
of the Internet and interactive technologies.
The Pan-Ukrainian Network against the Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children held a large launch for make-IT-safe
attended by members of the media, the IT industry, the
government and its own groups.
In the United Kingdom, CHIS and ECPAT UK launched make-IT-safe
in the media, generating press coverage and items on
the BBC, ITV and ITN radio around the country, several
regional television channels, and on British Forces
Broadcasting Services.
ECPAT takes make-IT-safe to Turkey
(19/04/2005 - 21/04/05)
ECPAT International executive director Carmen
Madrinan gave an address on make-IT-safe in early May
to the Symposium on Children and Adolescents at Risks,
organised by ECPAT partner Yeniden at the Istanbul Bilgi
University, Turkey from April 19-21. The presentation
drew wide-spread media coverage and follow-up interviews.
The symposium, the first such event to discuss CSEC
in Turkey, drew more than 300 participants from universities,
the social welfare, service and medical professions,
as well as the IOM, UNICEF, Caritas and other child
rights groups. According to Yeniden and other symposium
participants, Turkey has a growing problem with Internet
child pornography coming from the Ukraine. As well,
one of the biggest international investigations into
child pornography on the Internet pointed to Istanbul
as a major source of child exploitation images in that
case. According to Yeniden, the Turkish man accused
of involvement in this child pornography ring is not
in jail. Ms Madrinan says Turkey needs to look at tightening
its laws, which is it already doing as a precursor to
entering the European Union, to criminalise child pornography
and its possession.
UN Special Rapporteur supports
campaign for IT industry
to act to protect children online (18/04/2005)
London/Bangkok – April 18,
2005 - The United Nation’s leading human
rights expert on child pornography is backing a new
global campaign to get the IT industry to take responsibility
for ensuring children’s safety online.
The make-IT-safe campaign was launched this morning
by children’s groups in 67 countries. It calls
on the IT industry to take urgent, worldwide action
to ensure its Internet and interactive technologies
are safe for children and young people.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the sale of children,
child prostitution and child pornography, Mr Juan Miguel
Petit, today came out in support of the make-IT-safe
campaign.
Mr Petit said his recent report to the Commission on
Human Rights about child pornography on the Internet
showed that “while IT technology offers unprecedented
opportunities for children and adults to learn, participate
and choose, it is also very open to abuse”.
“The Web is a space of nearly unlimited freedom
where real and virtual blur together and cybernauts
hide their identities behind smiling emoticons. This
no man’s land is vulnerable to abusive and harmful
use and is proving to be permeated by an alarming proliferation
of child pornographic material.
Child pornography on the Internet is a truly global
problem and needs global responses from different actors,
Governments, law enforcement agencies, the private sector,
in particular Internet service providers (ISPs), software
designers, credit-card companies, NGOs, including consumers’
organizations, the media, teachers and educators, children
and their families.
From awareness-raising campaigns to hotlines, a wide
range of actions have been undertaken to equip children
and their families with the skills and tools against
the risks of abuse or to report web sites with abusive
contents. A creative use of the media is crucial to
get the message across.”
The Special Rapporteur said he supports initiatives
like the make-IT-safe campaign which go in that direction.
The backing of the Special Rapporteur has been welcomed
by make-IT-safe campaign partners, ECPAT International
and the Children’s Charities Coalition for Internet
Safety.
ECPAT International executive director Carmen Madriñán
says the support of the UN Special Rapporteur is a major
boost for the make-IT-safe campaign and adds weight
to its lobbying of IT industry and governments.
The make-IT-safe campaign is being led by ECPAT International,
a global child rights NGO with groups in 67 countries,
and the Children’s Charities Coalition for Internet
Safety, which includes all the UK’s leading child
welfare organisations.
The campaign calls on the IT industry and its leaders
to set up a global child protection body which to set
industry-wide safety standards and protocols, to fund
research into new safety technologies, and to undertake
a worldwide education campaign in all the major languages.
As well, ECPAT is using its global network to lobby
governments to adopt policies to ensure IT child safety,
to enable international legal co-operation to combat
child abuse through the Internet and interactive technologies,
and care and protection for children abused or exposed
to harmful images and messages online.
For further information, please contact:
Mara Steccazzini, Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights, Geneva, Switzerland Tel.: +41 22 917 9151
Fax: +41 22 917 9006
Email: msteccazzini@ohchr.org
OR
Karen Mangnall, ECPAT International communications
officer, Bangkok, Thailand
Tel: +66 2 215 3388; 611 0972 Ext 112 Fax: +66 2 215
8272
Email: karenm@ecpat.net
Global launch for make-IT-safe
(18/04/2005)
The make-IT-safe campaign was launched to
the media on April 18, 2005 – from Bangkok, Thailand,
by ECPAT International and from the UK, by the Children’s
Charities Coalition for Internet Safety and ECPAT UK.
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