Child Protection&Online Safety
12 October 2007
uk: New technology undermining childhood The Daily Telegraph
Parents are "ill-equipped" to keep their children safe from violent and damaging influences on the internet, the British Government said on Tuesday. Few families are aware of the extreme images in many video games and websites used by thousands of young people every day, it is claimed Ed Balls, the Children's Secretary, said only one-in-20 parents knew that many children gave out personal details online, raising fresh fears that uncontrolled access to new technology may be undermining childhood. Also reports from The Times and BBC.
09 October 2007
Interpol in rare sex abuse appeal BBC
Interpol on Monday launched an unprecedented worldwide public appeal to track down a man shown sexually abusing children in images posted on the Internet.
05 October 2007
The notional paedophile now dictates what we can look at The Guardian
Whatever the artistic import, images of naked children are now viewed by society exclusively through a sexual filter
28 September 2007
American parents worry about Web but don't stop kids' use Reuters
Most U.S. parents said their children had encountered "issues" like bad language, sex or advertising online over the past year, but they are not stopping their kids' Internet use, according to a new study. A survey of 411 parents of children aged between 6-18 who use the Internet found 71% admitted their child had encountered at least "one issue" with the Internet within the past year.
26 September 2007
NY blasts Facebook over sexual predators, subpoenas docs PC World
Facebook's safety controls and procedures are deficient and fail to properly protect minors from adult sexual predators in the company's social-networking site, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo charged Monday.
uk: "No hiding place for bullies" Direct.gov.uk
A new package of measures will help schools tackle all forms of bullying was launched today by Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). The campaign includes cyberbullying website, new guidance for school and a short film to help schools tackle bullies who use the internet or mobile phones to bully other children or abuse their teachers.
22 September 2007
English schools urged to use police in crackdown on cyberbullying The Guardian
Ministers are urging schools to involve police in the most serious cases of cyberbullying of pupils and staff in a new crackdown on the "unaccceptable" and "insidious" use of new technology.
21 September 2007
INHOPE publish landmark Global Internet Trend Report - 9,600 reports of child pornography processed per month INHOPE
INHOPE's statistical analysis of the reports received by the INHOPE network over a 28 month period has resulted in the first detailed analysis of illegal activity on the Internet. The INHOPE hotline network has processed, and continues to process, a huge volume of reports about illegal, harmful and not-illegal content on the Internet and has, as a result, created a dynamic (time-sensitive) chart of the downside sectors of the Internet. This report is the first step towards a global action plan to eradicate illegal activity from the Internet. It is a landmark publication for policy makers, governments and Industry.
11 September 2007
An unholy alliance: Timothy Cox - 'the son of god', global paedophile ring mastermind The Observer
Timothy Cox was a quiet, clean-cut 27-year-old who worked for his small family brewery in rural Suffolk. He was also 'the son of god' - the mastermind of a global paedophile ring. The Observer's Mark Townsend investigates in this harrowing story.
08 September 2007
uk: Internet controls or citizen service, rival leaders tackle child protection The Guardian
New controls may be needed to prevent the internet and video games from exposing children to harmful or inappropriate material, ministers indicated yesterday, as they appointed a TV psychologist to head an official inquiry. The prime minister, Gordon Brown, also launched a national consultation on the next decade of children's policy, underlining the government's determination to prevent Conservative claims of a "broken society" from taking hold after a spate of shootings and stabbings of young people.
06 September 2007
uk: Brown widens review of impact media violence has on children The Guardian
The impact of media violence on children will be the focus of a wider than expected government review being launched today. It may lead to new voluntary controls over excessive violence and sex on children's television and the internet and in video games. Gordon Brown stressed that he did not see the review leading to state censorship, but hoped it would lead to a common agreement between parents, programme makers and internet providers that new controls are necessary.
04 September 2007
Czech Bill On Child Porn Faces Resistance; Unlike Most of E.U., Possession Is Legal Washington Post
When Austrian authorities announced in February that they had uncovered an online child pornography ring, pedophiles around the world suddenly became potential targets of criminal investigations -- but not the ring's 63 customers in the Czech Republic, where downloading and possessing such images is not a crime.
31 August 2007
G-8: Ministers' Declaration: Reinforcing the International Fight Against Child Pornography German Federal Ministry of the Interior
Child pornography grievously harms all children: it harms the child who is sexually assaulted in the making of the image; the same child is re-victimized every time that image is viewed; and it harms all children because it portrays them as a class of objects for sexual exploitation. We categorically denounce those who sexually exploit children by producing images of their sexual abuse and by distributing or collecting such images. Because no child should be victimized in this horrific way, today we pledge to redouble our efforts to enforce the international fight against child pornography.
Are web filters just a waste of everyone's time and money? The Guardian
As our regular columnist Seth Finkelstein would tell you, the only people who truly benefit from web filters are the people who make them - such as those who laboured on those provided under the Australian government's NetAlert filter scheme at a total cost of A$84m (£34.7m).
26 August 2007
Student cracks $84m Aussie porn filter News.com.au
A Melbourne schoolboy has cracked the Federal Government's new $84 million internet porn filter in minutes. Tom Wood, 16, said it took him just over 30 minutes to bypass the Government's filter, released on Tuesday.
19 August 2007
Eurobarometer: Are Europe's children too confident in tackling online risks? EUROPA
Can parents trust their 13 year old daughter when she surfs the web? Do they know for sure that their 11 year old son's mobile phone conversation is safe? A Commission survey of children from all over Europe has looked into how they use new media. It shows that the use of internet and mobile phones has become almost self-evident for Europe's young generation. In general, they also know the risks of using the internet and mobile phones. However, when facing trouble online, minors will ask an adult only as a last resort.
How Safe is ‘Social Networking’? ENISA
Myspace, Twitter, Facebook - Social Networking is the web success story of the new century. The statistics are mind-bending - Myspace claimed its 100 Millionth user in August 2006. But a recent ENISA workshop put the question - "how safe are social networks?" According to the experts, there is a lot to be concerned about; from specialised social networking worms spreading through Myspace profiles to identity theft, extortion, spear-phishing and even recruitment of terrorists - social networking has it all. But the biggest threat is to personal privacy.
17 August 2007
Majority of NZ youth use Internet without conflict
A longitudinal study of New Zealand adolescents shows that 66 percent of 10-14 year old internet users do not demonstrate negative behaviour related to bullying in school, fighting with friends, family conflict and negative peer influence.
Child pornography laws that relate to the internet in the USA Internet Business Law Services
In order to protect minors from sexual and other violent crimes, to prevent child pornography, and to make the Internet safer for minors, the United States has enacted several laws such as the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), the Child Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA). The main objective of these laws is to limit the availability of pornography and other material which is harmful to minors.
12 August 2007
Cyber Divide Widens: Kids Outsmarting Their Parents Information Week
The gap is widening between what kids do online and what their parents think they do. A new study shows that children are online twice as much as their parents think they are and nearly one-quarter are getting away with forbidden online activities, according to security company Symantec, which commissioned Harris Interactive to do the poll.
11 August 2007
au: ISP-level filters 'unworkable' The Age
ISPs have labelled the Federal Government's radical plan to force them to filter web content at the request of their users as unworkable. Communications Minister Helen Coonan admitted feasibility studies surrounding the proposal had yet to be conducted and that the Government would "only introduce filtering measures that are shown to be workable".
Australian prime minister's net porn crusade The Australian
John Howard is going to spend $189 million "cleaning up the internet" for Australian families, blocking pornography, upgrading the search for chatroom sex predators and cutting off terror sites.
06 August 2007
'He downloaded child porn. I know we'll get bricks through the window - but he's still my husband' The Observer
Last week actor Chris Langham was convicted of child pornography offences. Why are men driven to watch such images? And what is the impact on their families? In this remarkable dispatch, a grandmother describes the pain of discovering her husband of 40 years had been downloading indecent images of children
Evil deeds should be punished. But what of evil thoughts? The Observer
Does watching pornographic images of child abuse make one a paedophile? This is a highly equivocal question. It can ask whether watching such pictures entails that one is a paedophile or it can ask whether watching them causes one to become a paedophile.
05 August 2007
US legislation looks at web filtering vnunet
The US has passed child safety legislation that could widen the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) powers to include the internet, according to constitutional campaigners. The Child Safe Viewing Act of 2007 (S.602) was passed by the Senate Commerce Committee and requires the FCC to do a study of internet filtering technologies. The research will include the "existence and availability" of filtering technologies for audio and video content transmitted over "wired, wireless, and internet" platforms, as well as other devices.
