Fergus Cassidy

Don't blame the net

I was going to write last week about child pornography on the net, but with such a high profile court case in Ireland and massive saturation throughout the media, I thought I'd gave it a week before commenting on this very complex and difficult area.

First off there was definitely a change in attitudes from when it was announced that the gardai (police) had raided over 100 homes under Operation Amethyst in June of last year.

Back then I put fingers to keys in the optimistic hope that the internet would not get the blame for facilitating the distribution of child pornography, especially images. It doesn't seem that long ago, but in those eight months the calls for the net to be policed and talk of censorship or other centrally-controlled filtering, have been notable by their absence.

It was, of course, a natural reaction to the gardai raids, because the scale and size of the operation showed for the first time that the net was being used in Ireland to exploit children in one of the most horrific and damaging ways possible. In a country that had been confronted almost daily with new revelations about child abuse by trusted institutions over decades, the internet might very well have been seen as the last straw.

Like I said here last June, there is no way to control the internet without destroying it. With massive political will, it might be possible to re-engineer the network so that it becomes more like television. TV is much safer alright but it's a one-way system with people choosing only from within a given and tightly-controlled menu.

If it was achieved, it would be the end of one of the most evolutionary communications systems the world has ever known, before it had a chance to develop. All that down the drain to retreat behind the false security of television. False, because even if the internet was disabled and tightly patrolled, child abuse and pornography would still be going on. We would just be more insulated from it.

Technology has facilitated the distribution of harmful images. But think of the futility in the past of, say, requiring licences or registration to own a camera or to purchase dark room equipment? Or banning classified ads of any kind?

The people who engage in downloading and swapping of child pornography have used the net because it's there. Where previously they had used postal or courier services, they now use the web. The net has speeded up the process but child pornography was happening long before the net came along.

But now we know a lot more than we did about its extent and depth. To some extent the net can act like a Venus fly trap to catch abusers. Operation Amethyst [1] was a follow-up from a massive sting operation in the US called Operation Landslide. An FBI swoop unearthed a child porn ring. They kept the site running and gathered information on who was using it.

The recent Irish court cases were a result of people who were caught because they handed over their credit card details, seemingly oblivious to revealing their identity. It was those credit card details that led to arrests, not any technological surveillance or eavesdropping.

It may be for the right reasons, but creating the impression that it is easy to track people's behaviour on the net is either the result of wishful or badly informed thinking. Designed to scare potential abusers away, the idea that anonymity is impossible on the net does more harm than good.

It drives paedophiles even more underground and into the world of encryption and other technologies. It may require a greater knowledge of computing, but abusers will get there one way or the other. It is possible to be anonymous on the net. It's not easy, but it is possible and then it becomes an unquantifiable nightmare to deal with.

The other difficulty with the 'don't do it, you'll get caught' approach is that it lumps in child abuse with other types of pornography, of which there are many myths.

Porn is not as widespread or popular as many think - or would like to think. I've read recent assessments which would indicate that about 10% of the global spend online is related to porn. It is an industry just like any other and it's there to make money. In the US, the porn industry is a powerful player in the entertainment sector. Not only that but a lot of the innovations (such as online payment facilities) were the result of research and development by the porn industry.

Sex sells in any business. There's even a law named after the legendary geek Mitch Kapoor. In 1992 he said that "the first use for any new communications technology is sex". Ten years on, 'Kapoor's Law' still holds up with reports in a British newspaper recently indicating that "mobile phone companies are turning to soft porn in a bid to recoup the billions they have splashed out on third generation licences".

I don't want to underestimate the popular of porn on the web. But it ranges in scale from typing in 'sex' to a search engine (I remember spending time looking for certain words when I first got a dictionary), to full paid membership with streaming video. There's very little happening on the net in relation to pornography that doesn't have an offline equivalent.

Creating a climate of fear about how easy it is to 'get caught' on the internet is counter-productive, on top of being false. It makes people afraid to report anything they find because of fear of the consequences to themselves.

How did they come across the site? What were they up to that brought them there? It wasn't just the publicity about the court case two weeks ago in Ireland, but the way it was handled by sections of the media could result in deepening fears about reporting. I can already give an example of what I mean. Me.

One of the fascinating things about running a web site, is that you get to look at the site logs, which show what server or ISP visitors come from, including information on what operating system and browser they used. But another facility gives me a look at the last link someone followed to get to my site.

About three months ago, I followed one of these links. It led to a website that had linked to a piece I wrote on Operation Amethyst last June. The site had forums for discussing what was referred to as "child erotica". While I felt extreme anger and outrage at what I saw, I have to admit to being a little nervous about reporting it.

I established that it was being hosted in the United States and tracked down a site - MissingKids.org - which the FBI recommends for reporting. I decided to send an email instead explaining that I was a journalist and how I came across the site. I got no reply. Days later I filled in an online form for reporting.

To my astonishment I discovered last week that the site I reported is still running, although it has changed servers. It seems that my reporting was futile. As a journalist, it's part of my job to go sniffing or rooting around. Sometimes in places without a welcome on the mat.

While fear can be no excuse on my part, there is a great danger that a lot of people in the situation I was in will reluctantly turn a blind eye because of the stigma attached.

Child pornography is not just the internet's problem, it is society's. And the more people involved in rooting it out, the greater the chance of success.

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LINKS

[1] The column I wrote last June contains details of Operation Amethyst and links to other sources.

Reporting
Irish internet service providers hotline for reporting instances of child pornography found on the net.

Child safety advice
WiredPatrol is the largest online safety, education and help group in the world. They offer help for online victims of cybercrime and harassment; assist law enforcement worldwide on preventing and investigating cybercrimes and provide information on all aspects of online safety, privacy and security.

The Internet Advisory Board is an Irish statutory body set up to oversee self-regulation of the net in Ireland. Its members are drawn from the internet service provider industry, the Gardai (police), government, education sectors, child protection interests and the legal profession. The site includes advice on online safety.