EU FORUM ON CYBERCRIME
Plenary session, Brussels, 27 November 2001
Main topic: Retention of traffic data  

Statement by ERICA (European Research into Consumer Affairs)

ERICA welcomes the establishment of the European Forum on Cybercrime and proposes that a similar forum or task force be set up to examine the main problems relating to children on the Internet (including harmful content) and how to tackle them in an integrated fashion with the work on cybercrime.

The new media have added a new dimension to the criminal exploitation of children. Paedophiles have gained personal access to children and the rate of crimes linked to the internet is steadily increasing. The issue of prevention of cybercrime has to be addressed differently when dealing with minors. The need for consumer protection of children and teenagers is more comprehensive and this needs to be taken into account in the context of internet related criminal actions. 

Bringing child pornographers to justice is taking too long. More police training in Internet crime is needed and existing laws may need to be clarified and modernised to take account of crimes such as luring or tricking children into meetings. The police need sufficient staff, proper training in Internet crime and effective international co-operation.

Hotlines need to be established in all member states and given an advertising budget commensurate with their vital role. The distinction should be made between privacy (for example the right to restrict use of one’s financial data) and traceability so that duly authorised police access to potentially suspicious on-line material can be improved.

ERICA takes the view that anonymity on the Internet is against the interest of fighting crime. All content providers should register real world addresses and every Internet Service Provider (ISP) should bar all access to telephone lines that have blocked caller identification.

Mechanisms should exist which would allow suspicious behaviour towards children to be noted, reported and dealt with very rapidly. Current ISP procedures should be reviewed to include wherever possible the recording and storing of chat-room conversations, as is already the practice with premium-rate telephone services, linked to the given identities of the participants. Costs can be kept low by using compression software to increase capacity/storage space. Moderators should go through the same procedures as other adults working with children.

Awareness-raising

Part of the solution is for parents to be more aware of what their children can access on the Internet and to make sensible rules. However, it is very unusual for children to know so much more about a subject than their parents (even their teachers) and for the practical implications of that knowledge to be so far-reaching. For this reason the task of educating parents and teachers needs to be taken very seriously.

Harmful content

Some content is a particular danger to others if it encourages violence, sexual or racial hatred. For example white supremacy sites even have special pages for children and on-line advice on bomb-making and suicide has been reported. ERICA proposes expanding the range of illegal content. For example, France has banned racist sites.

The challenge is enforcement against sites set up on the other side of the globe especially anonymous sites. The French ban is being challenged in the U.S. courts. A convention or international agreement is needed that the law of the user applies. In this respect, ERICA welcomes the work of the Council of Europe.

Legal protection

Legal repression of harmful content is only one step to fight criminal content on the Internet: prevention and education of the public is equally important as the question of what is harmful cannot be answered unanimously. In television, children are protected from unwanted content by broadcasting such questionable material after 9 pm. The internet does not allow such measures. The complexity of the new technologies and its growing importance in many spheres of society (commercial transactions, entertainment, source of information) requires a correspondingly complex legal framework to ensure the security of all users, including children.

ERICA is working on more suitable and more comprehensive measures to protect the youngest users from illegal and harmful activities on the Internet.