By Jo Best, 12 January 2004 17:45
NEWS A report released today by children's charity NCH has put the blame for the dramatic rise in child porn offences down to the internet.
Since the late 1980s, the number of child porn offenders has risen by 1,500 per cent – from just 35 arrested in 1988 to 548 in 2001. The report's author, NCH internet consultant John Carr, believes the link between the rise in paedophile porn crimes and internet usage is more than just a coincidence.
He believes that the relative ease which an internet user can acquire images of child pornography has inspired individuals who may have had paedophile urges but never previously acted on them to acquire pornographic images.
"The internet has allowed people with latent or suppressed interest in those issues to do something. Before the invention of the internet, it was difficult to get hold of these images," he said. "It's a conduit, not an actor in its own right."
However, according to Carr, the real danger could be 3G phones. He believes that whereas with 'fixed' internet, accessed typically by sitting at a PC, children's usage can be monitored by parents or teachers, with mobile internet phones children can use them anywhere and enter chatrooms without similar parental safeguards.
Still, despite a request for more action from ISPs, Carr told silicon.com that parents themselves have a part to play in keeping their children safe. "Parents have the same responsibility, as in every area of their children's lives, to keep their children safe," he told silicon.com in a separate interview.
The internet industry rejects accusations of encouraging paedophilia. A spokesman for AOL told silicon.com: "It's like saying the existence of cars causes road accidents when it's actually the [bad] driving that causes them."
The Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) also believes that the finger is being pointed at the industry unfairly. The organisation said in a statement that "were it not for the assistance the internet industry offers law enforcement agencies, the police would not have been as successful as they have been in arresting individuals who have been distributing or downloading images of child abuse".
The industry isn't resting on its laurels, however. AOL's spokesman said: "I don't think we should be complacent – we can always be doing more" to stop the internet paedophiles.
Nevertheless, the very nature of paedophile porn on the internet may prove a challenge for ISPs. The Internet Watch Foundation, an industry group set up to tackle the problem of child pornography, found that 54 per cent of the images reported to them were located in the US and a further 24 per cent in Russia – putting them out of the jurisdiction of British police and beyond the reach of UK ISPs.
Carr believes that the ISPs' work, however, has made a contribution to tracking down the criminals: "It's part of the paradox – the internet has made it possible for paedophiles to get hold of the material but at the same time it's made it easier for police to track them down and nick them," but maintains that the industry should hold its hands up to playing a part in paedophilia.
"Is it possible the internet has changed nothing? Yes, it's a theoretical possibility that the internet has had no effect but when you look at the evidence it's just not a tenable explanation," he said.
Comments
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1. anonymous
Strictly my personal opinion: isn't this rather like blaming the telephone network for the rise in the number of obscene phone calls? Or blaming the post office for the rise in junk mail?
2. Richard Davies
ISP's are definitely being unjustly targeted here. Let not forget that ISP's already have to keep certain information for 7 years whereas the police can get rid of information after only a month, which is partly why Ian Huntley was not highlighted as a risk.
Also, I think that John Carr is providing mis-leading results that are not even in context.
The Internet is only a medium by which people can communicate and is simply an open-network.
Back in 1980, can John Carr prove that there was ‘x’ amount of paedophiles out there compared to 'x' amount today and what the percentage increase is? I think not. If anything the Internet has drawn these people out into the public domain where they can be tracked and prosecuted etc.
Someone should calculate the ratio of good to bad that has come from the internet, such as a worldwide community, access to information for research etc. not previously accessible, grid computing which allows years worth of scientific calculations be carried out in much shorter periods of time.
Ask John Carr whether or not a 16 year old can purchase a 3G Internet phone…the answer is ‘no’, so what about the responsibility of the parents etc. why do the parents buy the child this type of phone? I wouldn’t.
I like the famous saying – ‘guns don’t kill people, people kill people’.
3. anonymous
This seems like blame for blames sake - surely the internet is the reason these people are being caught, not the reason they are commiting the crimes?
4. anonymous
Maybe John Carr should also consider that our culture is equally responsible for the rise of child porn and the increase in child abuse and by finding scapegoats bodies are merely avoiding deeper cultural issue that exist throughout the world.
Perhaps some thought should go into the fact that the Internet has helped lower the tolerance for discussion of social taboos and whilst it allows people to communicate about these disgusting habits it also allows the public as a whole to know more.
It also may be worth considering that if we spent slightly more time allowing our children to grow freely and not contrained to our image of what children should be, constantly protected from the world until a certain 'age' they might grow up more reponsability, and not into child abusers like the current repressed adults.
Blaming technology for the action of the adults is stupid. We should look into the culture that encourages these alduts to develop in that way and ask what is wrong with that culture.
5. anonymous
Is'nt this like the "End of the World" being attributed to the increase in natural disasters, whereas its more likely that due to the increased communication networks that we are being made aware of just how many natuaral disasters occurr, these people where there all along afterall the internet has only been around for a few years, I expect that these people where always there, its just that the internet has allowed more of them to caught and we are now becoming aware of just how many of these perverts there are and it scares us, better to solve the problem at it roots than blame the internet, it is after all only a tool, and I expect if they did'nt use it they would find some other means to carry out thier sordid practices.