Child Protection&Online Safety
26 July 2007
Go Daddy, Miss America & Congress Find Ways to Protect Our Kids Online Go Daddy
Miss America, the president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a well-known researcher of crimes against children, and a top GoDaddy.com executive were among the key figures who testified today before Congress about how to protect our kids from online predators. The business of child pornography over the Internet is estimated to be worth as much as $20 billion.
us: MySpace bars thousands of sex offenders found among members The Guardian
MySpace found more than 29,000 registered sex offenders among its 180 million members, it was revealed on Tuesday. Three months ago the site acknowledged that there were 7,000 profiles of sex offenders on its site, but under pressure from legal officials in several US states it has provided a more complete breakdown of its membership.
25 July 2007
New Council of Europe Convention to protect children against sexual exploitation and abus Council of Europe
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has adopted the Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, which represents a major advance in this field. "There should be no hesitation or complacency in the fight against sexual exploitation and abuse of children," said Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis when he welcomed the adoption of the Convention.
Teens smart about using MySpace: study ABC
Fears that teenagers using the social networking website MySpace are exposing themselves to sexual predators by disclosing too many personal details are probably overblown, researchers say.
21 July 2007
Study: 1 in 25 American Youths Asked for Sex Pics Sydney Morning Herald
Four percent of American youths online have been asked to send a sexually explicit photo of themselves over the Internet, researchers say in a new study. Of the 65 youths in the study who reported receiving a request, only one actually complied. But researchers say that's still a troubling number: With millions of youths online, that projects to potentially thousands across the US.
20 July 2007
A Debate on Child Pornography's Link to Molesting New York Times
Experts have often wondered what proportion of men who download explicit sexual images of children also molest them. A new government study of convicted Internet offenders suggests that the number may be startlingly high: 85 percent of the offenders said they had committed acts of sexual abuse against minors, from inappropriate touching to rape.
8 nations plot ways to combat child porn Manila Standard Today
Experts from eight countries, including the Philippines, yesterday opened a four-day special training on how to combat child pornography and exploitation of children through the Internet.
us: Limiting Ads of Junk Food to Children New York Times
Trix are no longer for kids -- at least not on children's television shows. But Cocoa Puffs are another matter. Trying to persuade critics the industry does not need government regulation, 11 big food companies, including McDonald's, Campbell Soup and PepsiCo, have agreed to stop advertising to children under 12 products that do not meet certain nutritional standards. Some of the companies, like Coca-Cola, have already withdrawn all such commercials or are in the process of doing so. Others, like General Mills, said they would withdraw them over the next year or so, while a handful agreed to expand their self-imposed bans to radio, print and Internet advertising.
us: Wi-fi makes tracking kid porn tougher UPI
U.S. investigators say the proliferation of wireless access to the Internet has made tracking child pornography traders more difficult.
14 July 2007
Swedish Police turn to web search in child porn fight The Local
The Swedish police has joined forces with image search company Picsearch as part of its fight against child pornography on the internet. The National Criminal Investigation Department (Rikskriminalpolisen) hopes that by using Picsearch it will be able to track down and block web sites containing pictures of child pornogrpahy that would not be found by ordinary search engines.
Net threats result of kids' online behavior USA Today
In a recent study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, researchers found no evidence that sharing personal information increases the chances of online victimization, such as unwanted sexual solicitation and harassment.
12 July 2007
uk: Websites lobbied over net suicide BBC
Internet providers have been asked to help with the growing problem of teenage suicides in Northern Ireland. Health Minister Michael McGimpsey has met Bebo, Vodafone and Google in a bid to stop websites being used to promote suicide among young people.
01 July 2007
British teenagers set up mass brawls online The Times
Police are monitoring social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace after claims they used to organise mass brawls
29 June 2007
Cyberbullying gathers pace in US BBC
One third of US online teenagers have been victims of cyber-bullying according to research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The most common complaint from teens was about private information being shared rather than direct threats. Girls were more likely than boys to be targets and teens who share their identities online are the most vulnerable, the survey found. But teenagers still think that the majority of bullying happens offline.
26 June 2007
CoE: Protection of children against sexual exploitation and abuse Council of Europe
The sixth meeting of the Committee of Experts on the protection of children against sexual exploitation and abuse took place at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, from 26 to 30 March 2007. The Committee adopted the draft Convention and its Explanatory Report. The Italian Minister for the family, Mrs Rosy BINDI, addressed the Committee notably to express the support of the Italian government to its work. Professor Pinheiro, an independent expert appointed by the Secretary General of the United Nations to lead a study on violence against children, expressed his support for the drafting of a Council of Europe convention on the protection of children against sexual exploitation and abuse during an exchange of views with the Committee of Ministers on 12 July 2006.
Paedophilia in Britain: the victim's story The Independent
The smashing of an internet ring sheds new light on a dark secret. ... Take Timothy Cox, who last week was convicted for running a global internet ring which traded horrific images of child abuse. It was the first time police had broken into a peer-to-peer site, a secret area on the web run by a host that can be accessed only after a strict vetting process by his "lieutenants".
Urgent call to tame Aussie cyber delinquents The Australian
Children as young as eight are being bullied in internet chat rooms and primary schoolers are sending pornographic pictures on their mobiles as the menace of cyber bullying reaches a new legion of younger victims. Experts are calling for radical action to try to halt the increase in "shocking" behaviour by some children and teenagers in chat rooms and on mobile phones and websites such as YouTube and MySpace.
24 June 2007
How an Australian journalist drew pedophiles into his internet trap by Martin Foley Sydney Morning Herald
As an experienced investigative journalist I admit to a feeling of disgust when dealing with any form of child abuse. It is not news that the internet is the favoured medium of pedophiles and sexual predators to target children and communicate among themselves. But the reality of the ease and sinister grooming techniques I discovered among pedophiles was shocking. Among those who fell into my online trap were people trying to have cyber sex with someone they believed to be a teenage Sydney school girl, and a man who identified himself as a Sydney architect.
22 June 2007
American parents report more clout in TV oversight Los Angeles Times
Parents are growing more confident that they can protect their kids from inappropriate content on TV, the Internet and video games, a new poll has found, but still worry that their children are exposed to too much sex and violence. The mixed results from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation will probably provide ammunition for both sides in the increasingly heated debate over shielding children from excessive sex and violence in the media. ... Overall, 65% of parents said they "closely" monitored how their children use the media. Parents were particularly confident of their ability to monitor the Internet, with 73% saying they know "a lot" about what their kids were doing online.
19 June 2007
Police smash child porn ring BBC
More than 30 children have been rescued from possible abuse after police shut down an international paedophile ring. It was run from the UK by 27-year-old Timothy Cox, who is due to be sentenced for child porn offences. Agencies in 33 countries, led by the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (CEOP), investigated more than 700 suspects - 200 in the UK.
05 June 2007
nz: Dolphin and friends help protect children from internet sharks New Zealand Herald
Sprat the fish has a serious role despite looking cute. The cartoon character is part of the online cartoon series Hector's World, launched yesterday, which aims to educate children as young as 2 about internet safety. Figures from internet safety group NetSafe show that four out of five New Zealand children use the web to help with their homework.
03 June 2007
uk: Child protection chief slated in paedophile treatment row The Independent
A police child protection chief at the centre of a row about how paedophiles should be dealt with yesterday stressed that child sex abuse will not be tolerated.
Jim Gamble of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre was criticised by a children's charity for arguing that paedophiles convicted of looking at child pornography should not necessarily go to prison.
He argued that the offender could receive a caution and be managed within the community.
He was praised elsewhere for saying that prison alone was not the answer to the problem.
02 June 2007
uk: Paedophiles 'need treatment, not prison' The Guardian
"Viewing" paedophiles should be treated in the community rather than be sent to jail, the head of the national police child protection unit said today.
Jim Gamble, head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), said too many people were being convicted of child sex offences to be dealt with in the criminal justice system.
He proposed that lower risk offenders, such as those convicted of downloading abusive images of children, should receive a police caution and then be managed in the community.
British teenagers lured into meeting virtual strangers The Times
One in five teenagers has met someone face-to-face whom they first encountered on the internet, according to research into the risks taken by young people online. The study found that teenagers also freely hand out personal information to strangers. Details divulged include full name (30 per cent), address (12 per cent), mobile number (20 per cent) and where they go to school (46 per cent), while 9 per cent had posted family photos. Other surveys have found the number of teenagers meeting up offline ranges from 7 per cent to 14 per cent.
How to find a safe space on the internet The Independent
Children can avoid danger on sites shared with millions of people - if they are protected.
