International cooperation to tackle child pornography

Abstract

Last week, UK children's charities voiced their collective disappointment at the lenient sentences handed down to seven paedophiles who had admitted to membership of an international internet child pornography ring. Their arrests had been made as a result of the work of Operation Cathedral, a law-enforcement operation across 15 countries, which investigated the “Wonderland” paedophile ring, and resulted in the largest-ever worldwide seizure of child pornography in 1998. More than a quarter of a million paedophilic images were uncovered from computers, plus hundreds of other compact discs and thousands of videotapes and floppy disks. According to media reports, the children depicted were as young as 3 months, and most were younger than 10 years old. A database of more than 1200 children featured is being circulated by Interpol. So far, only 17 children have been identified. Irrespective of the light UK sentences, Operation Cathedral would seem to be a welcome example of international cooperation to combat this increasing problem. However, as one of the UK detectives who worked on Cathedral noted at a 1999 international conference on child pornography on the internet: “Legislative and operational differences between states can, as Cathedral has shown, be overcome but tend to be based on individuals' drive and determination as opposed to structural and system support.” That same conference 2 years ago recognised that global partnership is essential if child internet pornography is to be effectively tackled. The conference also noted, however, the difficulties inherent in the creation of international legal instruments. The most obvious hindrance is a lack of an internationally acceptable definition of child pornography, particularly in its application to the internet. Nevertheless, despite these difficulties, progress has been made. Earlier this month, the European Union sent out a clear signal of its intention to make tackling child pornography on the internet a high priority. The European Commission produced a document— Creating a Safer Information Society by Improving the Security of Information Infrastructures and Combating Computer-related Crime. Comments on the document are invited until March 23, and on March 7 the proposals will be the subject of a public hearing. According to this document: “In the short term, the Commission believes that there is a clear need for an EU instrument to ensure that member states have effective sanctions in place to combat child pornography on the internet. The Commission will introduce later this year a proposal for a Framework Decision which, within the wider context of a package covering issues associated with the sexual exploitation of children and trafficking in human beings, will include provisions for the approximation of laws and sanctions.” In the longer term, the Commission also intends to set up a forum of interested parties, such as law-enforcement agencies, internet service providers, and civil-liberties organisations to enhance Europe-wide understanding and cooperation. Although the EU initiative is laudable, it clearly will not be enough without cooperation from other countries and continents. It is surely precisely this sort of borderless problem that requires firm action from one of the international agencies. The most significant piece of working international legislation at present is an “optional protocol” to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Since May 25 last year, the protocol has been signed by 69 countries, but needs more support before it can come into force. A notable signatory to the protocol is the USA, one of only two countries that has yet to ratify the Convention itself. The protocol obliges signatories to prohibit the sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography. The last “means any representation, by whatever means, of a child engaged in real or simulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a child for primarily sexual purposes”. In September this year, world leaders will gather at UN headquarters, this time for the “Special Session on Children” to review progress made in the decade since the last World Summit on Children. We understand that the “outcomes document” that countries will sign after this special session is currently being negotiated. This draft would oblige all signatories to ratify the optional protocol on child pornography without delay. We trust that, during the negotiations between now and September, the wording of this international agreement does not lose its directness and urgency.