Issue no. 403 - 24 November 2009

• EU - INHOPE celebrated its 10th anniversary (Europa)
  INHOPE was founded in 1999 with 8 Member hotlines in Europe. Today, INHOPE has 35 Members all over the world, in 25 European countries, as well as international members from the US, Australia, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, South Africa, Russia and South Korea. The main objective of the network is to fight against illegal content online, and especially against child sexual abuse images. A Hotline is where the general public can report illegal Internet content, primarily child sexual abuse images. Illegal activity on the Internet is a cross border problem that no organisation can effectively tackle alone. Often illegal material reported to Hotlines is hosted beyond the borders of their own country and the national jurisdiction. The global network of INHOPE member hotlines provides a means to pass the relevant information, without delay, to be handled in the country where the site is hosted. Hotlines have the support of their national government, Internet industry, law enforcement, and Internet users in the country of operation and they offer effective transparent procedures for dealing with reports. The expansion of the network around the globe has increased the ability to remove child sex abuse images from the Internet and in consequence help to protect the children behind the images.

Issue no. 402 - 18 October 2009

• FR - Les sites illégaux peuvent aussi être signalés depuis un mobile (01net)
  Pointdecontact.net, le site pour dénoncer les contenus illicites et choquants, est maintenant accessible sur les mobiles. Depuis le 23 septembre 2009, une version mobile est aussi en ligne à l'adresse www.pointdecontact.mobi.

Issue no. 401 - 26 July 2009

• FR - 26 000 signalements de contenus illicites transmis à la police (O1.net)
  Pendant plusieurs années, le public ne pouvait adresser à la police judiciaire, par Internet, que des signalements de sites impliqués dans des faits de pédophilie et de pédo-pornographie. Depuis janvier 2009, la nouvelle version du service, accessible sur internet-signalement.gouv.fr, est ouverte à tout type de crimes et délits : escroquerie, incitation à la haine raciale, etc. Résultat : le nombre de signalements a explosé, avec ce « portail officiel des contenus illicites de l'Internet ». En six mois, la police, a enregistré 26 222 signalements. 3 500 fiches ont été transmises à des services d'enquête et sur ce nombre, 762 ont entraîné une action - une ouverture d'enquête ou un blocage du site - de la police nationale (190 cas), de la gendarmerie (21), des douanes (8) ou encore de la répression des fraudes (3) mais aussi de services étrangers, en passant par Interpol. C'est le cas pour 540 signalements pour les six premiers mois de 2009. Pour l'essentiel, cela concernait des cas de pédo-pornographie.

Issue no. 400 - 5 July 2009

• DE - Kriminalbeamte schlagen "Notrufsäule" im Netz vor (Heise)
  Der Bund Deutscher Kriminalbeamter (BDK) spricht sich für mehr Sicherheit im Netz aus und hat der Bundesfamilienministerin Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) ein umsetzungsreifes Konzept vorgelegt. Das sagte BDK-Chef Klaus Jansen der Neuen Osnabrücker Zeitung. Das Konzept umfasst eine Aufklärungskampagne unter dem Motto "Der 8. Sinn im Netz" sowie das Online-Angebot "Web Patrol" und eine Software, mit der Übergriffe oder Verstöße im Netz gemeldet werden können. Das Konzept will Jansen auf dem 14. Deutschen Präventionstag in Hannover der Öffentlichkeit vorstellen. see also One Click Away from a Cop (Spiegel).

Issue no. 399 - 7 June 2009

• EU - Russia and South Africa join INHOPE network (Press Release)
  The INHOPE network has three new Internet Hotlines from Russia and South Africa, expanding the network to 35 Hotlines in 31 countries around the globe. Hotline Contact details: Film Publication Board (South Africa), Friendly Runet Foundation and National Internet-Safety Node in Russia (Russia) .

• UK - Policing the dark side of the net (BBC)
  The BBC goes behind the scenes at the Internet Watch Foundation to see how its researchers cope with the psychologically demanding job of policing sites peddling images of child abuse. The watchdog that blocked a Wikipedia page last year over a rock album cover says it still believes that the image at the heart of that controversy was illegal. But the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) says it has moved on after the row in December 2008, and claims its quest to eradicate child abuse images from the web is now having real success.

Issue no. 393 - 9 November 2008

• EU - European alert platform for Internet offences (Consilium)
  Council Conclusions on setting up national alert platforms and a European alert platform for reporting offences noted on the Internet. 2899th Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting, Luxembourg, 24 October 2008.

• UK - Users urged to report abuse sites (BBC)
  Web users are being urged to help spot illegal and obscene content online. The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is running an awareness campaign to tell web users how to report images of child sexual abuse. The campaign comes in response to IWF research which suggests 77% of people who find illegal content do not know how to report what they have seen. Banner adverts, e-mail messages and information pages are being used to educate people about how to report.

Issue no. 390 - 20 July 2008

• EU - Commission sounds alarm on 116 child hotline delays (RAPID)
  Parents and children need to be able to call help quickly and free of charge while travelling in the EU. In the UK and Belgium alone more than 7,500 children were reported missing in 2007. Public concern about child safety has been heightened by cases like the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal. In 2007, the Commission took action by reserving, at national level, six-digit numbers starting with 116 for missing children hotlines (116000) and for helplines (116111) with which children can seek assistance. However, a recent EU survey shows that only a minority of Member States have assigned these numbers to service providers: seven for 116000 and ten for 116111. The Commission has called on Member States to speed up implementation of these numbers. Under EU law Member States do not have to assign the numbers, but are required to reserve them and inform the public and providers of their availability. The survey shows few efforts by Member States to make known the numbers' availability, delaying their implementation.

• JP - Only 20% of known child porn sites heed watchdog's call to shut down (Kyodo News)
  Only 20 percent of some 1,600 known child pornography sites were taken off the Internet in 2007 despite pressure from a Tokyo-based watchdog that monitors the harmful sites. As the Internet Hotline Center Japan is not authorized to enforce deletions or issue requests for such action to foreign servers, cross-border exchanges of pornographic images continue. The center detected 1,609 child porn sites last year, based mainly on tipoffs, and urged the taking down of 526 whose servers are located in Japan. However, only 339 accepted the request.

• ZA - New website to expose child pornography (BuaNews)
  Members of the public can now anonymously report any images of sexual abuse discovered on the internet through a newly launched website in South Africa. The website, www.fpbprochild.org.za, which is available 24 hours, seven days a week was launched in Johannesburg by Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba. Mr Gigaba said the website service will afford members of the public an opportunity to report any incidences of child pornography online and remain anonymous. "Our internet content analysts will assess the contents of any reported website and will forward a detailed report to the law enforcement agencies in South Africa for further action. The Film and Publication Board fully supports the initiative Other stakeholders in the fight against child pornography included the South African Police Service, SABC and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa.

Issue no. 386 - 20 April 2008

• UK - IWF Annual Report highlights persistent core of child sexual abuse websites (IWF)
  The Internet Watch Foundation Annual Report 2007 reveals new intelligence regarding the scale of publicly available child sexual abuse websites known to the IWF. Whilst it is very rare to trace these websites to the UK, the IWF has identified a core of 2755 websites hosted abroad during 2007; this total number has remained relatively static for three years and represents a concrete target which can be tackled through international partnerships. This target is characterised by websites, 80% of which are commercial operations, which frequently hop host company and region to avoid detection. These tactics, coupled with the complex multi-national nature of the crimes, mean that only a united global response involving law enforcement authorities, governments and the international online sector will enable effective investigation of these websites, their content and the organisations behind them.

Issue no. 381 - 8 December 2007

• UK - Web giants aid child porn hotline (BBC)
  Top internet companies have joined forces to publicise a hotline to report online child pornography. Internet giants AOL, Tiscali, Yahoo! and MSN are supporting the work of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF). Through the hotline, the IWF offers a "notice and take-down" service to police and internet service providers.

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