Enhanced use of technology to identify victims of child abuse and blocking access to Web sites containing abusive and violent images are not enough to ensure online child protection.
This is according to international police organisation, Interpol, which says information sharing and international coordination are crucial to fighting online child abuse.
The assistant director of Interpol's Trafficking in Human Beings unit, Jon Eyers, says there is a need for countries investigating online child abuse to communicate and work together.
Countries involved in fighting online child abuse always begin from different starting points, he says. “However, it was only through sharing these details via international organisations like Interpol that the full picture was found which can result in significant arrests and the removal of abusive Web sites,” he adds.
He says it is important for people to realise that abusive images on the Internet are not 'virtual', but depictions of real physical abuse of actual children. “Blocking access to these Web sites underlines to users the illegality of the material they are trying to find and reminds them of the human cost involved.”
Interpol says it appreciates countries which share information about criminals they arrest because it helps track alliances in different countries. It says the evidence gathered independently by the countries led to the location and arrest in Belarus and Ukraine of the gang behind the child abuse Web sites in those countries.
“These countries also identified more than 30 000 individuals across the globe who had purchased the abusive images, generating millions of dollars in profit for the criminal organisation.
”Subscribers' details have been disseminated by the Interpol general secretariat to member countries for further action and a number of arrests have already been made,” it says.
According to Interpol, in June 2007, a hi-tech crime unit in Belarus began 'Operation tornado', which identified a criminal organisation that was controlling and profiting from more than 200 different child exploitation Web sites.
“In May of the same year, the Child Abuse Investigation Hi-tech crime unit of the London Metropolitan Police initiated 'Operation myosis' after receiving details of a payment control database which they then discovered managed access to more than 200 commercial child exploitation Web sites,” Interpol says.
Eyers adds that since the introduction of the International Child Sexual Exploitation database hosted by Interpol in 2001, more than 1 800 victims from 50 countries have already been rescued from abusive situations and more than 1 000 offenders identified.
Last week Interpol brought together more than 180 experts from around the world, to discuss child protection issues.
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