15 OCTOBER 2014, GLOBAL: In cooperation with the 32nd Meeting of the INTERPOL Specialists Group on Crimes against Children, representatives from Industry, Law Enforcement, Civil Society and the Research community met earlier this month to initiate a new collaborative process in the fight against online Child Sexual Abuse.
Speaking during the Specialist Meeting, Mick Moran, INTERPOL’s Assistant Director for Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation said, “INTERPOL welcomes this initiative from Industry. There is no doubt that we need to work together to address online child sexual abuse. We would also encourage further input from the technology community on how they might assist in treating this problem. For example, robust formal and informal procedures exist to manage issues such as Spam and Malware and we would like to see a similar solution developed for Child Abuse Material. Coming together to discuss the issues is a very positive development in itself and we are committed to support the industry in this endeavor through leveraging each other’s strengths.”
The informal cross-disciplinary coalition recognised the significant progress made in recent years by many sub-sectors of Industry to introduction technological and policy measures to disrupt access to Child Abuse Material on the Internet. However, as Internet connectivity and digital technology become faster and cheaper, online crimes against children become increasingly challenging to investigate and prosecute, and the need for close cooperation between all players becomes ever more urgent to stem the tide of online abuse.
Co-organised by Group IB, Hubstream, Netclean and Videntifier, this event gathered Adobe, Bluebear, Facebook, Farsight Security, Trend Micro and ZiuZ, joined by INTERPOL’s Crimes against Children Team, Europol, University of Warwick and NGOs including ECPAT International and the International Association of Internet Hotlines – INHOPE – to initiate a mapping of capabilities against online crimes against children. As part of closer engagement between academia, industry, law enforcement and civil society, advancing the role of computer science and related technologies in fighting crimes against children is more than ever important.
The meeting served as a springboard to identify joint research activities and future actions that can ensure a sustained, effective and highly collaborative response to the sexual exploitation of children online. There is a role for everyone to play in this, and the time to act is now.
Photo source INTERPOL.
ABOUT ECPAT INTERNATIONAL
ECPAT is a global network of organisations and individuals working together to eliminate child prostitution, child pornography and the trafficking of children for sexual purposes. ECPAT has 80 member organisations in 74 countries in the world. ECPAT seeks to encourage the world community to ensure that children everywhere enjoy their fundamental rights, free and secure from all forms of commercial sexual exploitation.
ECPAT International has been leading the global discussion on the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) and is recognised as a strong and cohesive child rights advocacy network speaking on behalf of vulnerable children and child victims of sexual exploitation for nearly 25 years.
INHOPE Spokesperson ECPAT Media Contact
Ms. Sarah Jane Mellor Ms. Karyn Stone
Communications Manager ECPAT International
Tel.: +31 (0) 205 700 296 Bangkok, Thailand
Mob.: +31 (0) 652 443 734 Tel.: +66 2 215 3388 ext.119
sarahjane.mellor@inhope.org karyns@ecpat.net