Child Pornography on the Internet

Child Pornography on the Internet

Y.İnceoğlu - Ş.Özerkan
Abstract Today, there has been a gradual development in the information network by means of internet medium.This study aims to draw attention to the existence of some frontiers in web-sites terms, especially concentrating on “children pornography” on web-sites; through reaching any web-sites through Internet be a right which should not be restricted since we have been experiencing the “information age”.

Key Words Safety; child; pornography; paedophile; internet; protection agencies

What’s Internet?

The internet is a global high-speed network, consisting of a set of network computers.The network can be perceived as a collection of host and client or user computers.

The Internet is sometimes referred to as the “Information Highway”.That term suggests that the NET contains information that users can search for by travelling along different paths.This process is called surfing. But the NET is described as a new kind of community in which users can participate in many different ways.The problem is that the Internet is not easily defined.In certain ways it is a traditional mass medium, like magazines, newspapers, radio stations, and TV channels. But the difference between the Internet and the traditional media is “interaction.

The Development and Use of Internet

The Internet has,been available since the early 60’s, when it was developed and established to protect military communication from external interference.However, when a new generation of software-the World Wide Web(WWW)browsers-was presented in the beginning of the 90’s the Internet became widespread.(Tor A.Evjen&Ragnhild T Bjornebekk,”What is the Internet”Basic Technology From the User’s Perspective”in von Feilitzen,Cecilia&Carlson,Ulla(eds)Children in the New Media Landscape.Games, Pornography, Perceptions, Göteborg University,The UNESCO International Clearinghouse on Children and Violence on the Screen at Nordicom, pp.163-167.

The explosion of Internet has occurred during the last decade.Twenty years ago there were about 200 machines.According to recent figures, there are more than nine million server computers linking between 100 and 200 million users to the Internet.

Of all the 97 million users in 1998, 53 % are found in the USA, 24 % in Western Europe, 8 % in Japan, 7 % in Asia excluding Japan, and 8 % in the rest of the world.These figures come from the International data Cooperation(IDC), which specializes in analyzing Internet use in the world.The IDC predicts that by the year 2003, users will increase to 320 million with the USA still dominating with 42 % of the users.

The Internet occupies a growing amount of young people’s leisure time in Europe.Considering only those who do use the Internet, figures range from around 10 minutes Per day (e.g. Finland,Italy,UK) up to over half an hour (Israel), thus approaching the amount of time spent reading books.It’s not clear that countries with a high proportion of English language speakers make the most use of the Internet.While generally more used by boys, as with other computer-based media, there are no consistent trends in age or social grade for Internet users.

Modem/Internet access in the child’s bedroom is still rare, well below 10 % of homes across Europe (with the exception of Israel).Trends by age or social grade are still difficult to discern clearly, though the importance of gender-as for all new technologies-remains strong.Interestingly, Internet access is relatively high-in the home and, to a lesser extent, in the bedroom-for those countries which are high on telephone access in the bedroom, showing how Internet access depends on national differences in approaches to telecommunication provision as well as to computer access (Sonia Livingstone, Katharine J.Holden&Moira Bovill,”Children’s Changing Media Environment: Overview of a European Comparative Study”,Children and Media:Image, Education, Participation, pp.39-51).

There are no safe and up-to-date figures on access to computers in the whole world but there are estimates of Internet use.In August 2001 the number of Internet users in the world was estimated to 8.5 % (doubled compared to only two and a half years before)The figure represents both adults and children who had accessed the Internet at least once during the three months prior to the survey (“The changing Media Environment”,Outlooks on Children and Media,Children and Media Violence Yearbook, 2001, compiled by Cecilia von Feilitzen and Catharina Bucht).

What is Pornography?

Pornography is any material that combines sex and /or the exposure of genitals with abuse or degradation in a manner that appears to endorse, condone, or encourage such behaviour.

Violent pornography is a depiction of a violent act that occurs in an explicit sexual context.This makes it necessary to define a violent depiction.For this purpose we will use the definition given by the National Television Violence Study performed in the US.

Depicted violence is defined as... ...overt depiction of a credible threat of physical force, or the actual use of such force intended to physically harm an animate being or group of beings.Violence also includes certain depictions of physically harmful consequences against an animate being or group that occur as a result of unseen violent means.Thus, there are three prime times of violent depictions:credible threats,behavioral acts, and harmful consequences (Smith&Donnerstein 1998,”Media Violence”, Human Aggression, New York, Academic Press, pp.167-202).

The Belgian MAPI group(Movement Aginst Paedophiles on the Internet) does not confine the concept of child pornography to images alone.It defines child pornography as; Any material depicting children in explicitly sexual situations or inciting the sexual exploitation of children.

Interpol has established a very broad definition of child pornography:

Child pornography is the consequence of eploitation or sexual abuse perpetrated on a child.It may be defined as many means of depicting or promoting the sexual exploitation of a child, including in written and/or audio form, centred on sexual acts committed by, or on genital organs of, a child.

Although in most cases children are not able to access pornographic material(video stores,variety stores etc), they can be exposed to it via the Internet.

There are over 40.000 pornographic Internet web sites.Surprisingly 12 to 17-year-old adolescents are among the largest consumers of pornography.They are voluntary-or involuntary exposed to pornography. It’s essentially the fastest, cheapest and most anonymous pornography outlet available.

Reports from several national Save the Children organisations tracking child pornography on the Internet indicate that Internet has become a distribution channel for commercial child pornography.

Internet from its very beginning as a public medium, has been used to distribute child pornography and illegal obscene material. During recent years, it appears that Internet has, to a lower or higher degree, even been a tool for child trafficking. Paedophiles are using the Internet to convey sexual fantasies about children, to recruit young children, to reinforce and legitimise sexual preferences. (Ragnhild T.Bjornebekk&Tor A.Evjen,”Violent pornography on the Internet:A Study of Accessibility and Prevalence”, Children in the New Media Landscape:Games, Pornography, Perceptions, the UNESCO International Clearinghuse on Children and Violence on the Screen,Yearbook 2000, pp.187-188).

Children normally enter chat roms.Paedophiles take note of this, they follow conversations ad track children who are lonely.One child may send messages like ”My parents are getting divorced..I hate my mother, she never buys me the computer game I want..I don’t like her boy friend either. The paedophile comes in and says:”My parents are getting divorced, too..I hate my mother..I can never get the game I want, until Uncle Timmy got it for me”. “Oh yeah?” says the first child, trying to seek a companion in misery or possibly a solution. “Yeah”, says the paedophile, “all you gotta do is go to the mall and meet Uncle Timmy”.

Children require close supervision for work in chat rooms.Children should never give their real name online, nor their address nor the name of their school, nor any information that may help in identifying where he or she lives.(Carlos A.Arnaldo,”The Naked, Hairy Caveman:Child Abuse on the Internet”, Children in the NewMedia Landscape: Games, Pornography, Perceptions,Editors:Cecilia von Feilitzen and Ulla Carlsson,The UNESCO International Clearinghouse on Children and Violence on the Screen at Nordicom,Göteborg, 2000).

One of the biggest fears among parents who are thinking of using the Internet is that their children will be exposed to pornography, particularly because over 17 million children are using the Internet world-wide (Thompson, B”New Kids on the net”The Guardian, June 24 1999, pp.2-3).

Internet Safety

Although the Internet is a great resource, it’s also a place of great danger for children.The same advances that have made the Internet s convenient have also made incredible dangers accessible to children, and what is illegal to distribute at the corner store is now found easily on Internet.Parental involvement is vital but one important and simple solution that has often failed to receive mention is filtered Internet Service Providers
(http://www.ntpainc.org/wwwSafety.html)

Guidelines for Parents

There are many steps a parent can take to prevent their child from accessing pornography including: -reading guide lines for parents which run through issues and possible approaches for overseeing Internet use by children -Being with your children at all times when they access the Internet -joining an Internet service provider that prevents its users from accessing such things -installing one of the many different types of blocking package on the market that filter content in some way.

Legal Perspective in U.S.A Child pornography is illegal on the Internet and if someone comes across a child pornography site they can notify the police,internet provider or both.Until the governments start making laws regarding the Internet, pornography will continue to be viewed freely on the Internet.

For example in USA since 1998,Child pornography Prevention Act(CPPA),Child Online Protectors Act(COPA), Children Internet Protection Act(CIPA) expanded the definition of child pornography, including images of youthful looking adults or images that are computer generated would be illegal.The CIPA required that all libraries install Internet filters to protect children or loose federal funding subsidies, discount on computers.The ACA is opposed to the internet filtering requirement because filtering software seems to either over protect or under-protect and limits freedom of speech and expression (National Sheriff’s Association November/December 2002).

Many of the most popular Internet-filtering programs installed in U.S schools and libraries to keep children away from online pornography according to a study by Kaiser Family Foundation, found that setting the filters to their most restrictive levels-as many schools and libraries do-results in the blocking of a quarter of all health sites, including half of all Web pages on safe sex. For example 20 libraries use filtering programs at their more restrictive settings only one used it’s filter’s least-restrictive setting (Yochy J.Dreazen,”Web Filters Block Safe-Sex-Sites-Anti-pornography Measures Seen Keeping Information Away From Many Teenagers”,Wall Street Journal, New York,11.12.2002)

Eventhough some limitations regarding the pornographic publications in the Internet have been devised, views opposing to these limitations are also being heard.According to this opposing view, tihis limitation is against the free flow of all information that forms the essence of the Internet.Moreover the boundary between censorship and coontrol is very oblique and no one can quarantee that these limitations would not be widened in the future.

On the other hand, being faced with unwanted information in the Internet medium and especially in the e-mails is becoming a problem.Countless e-mail messages are being sent to personal mail addresses from countless pornographic sites without a special request and these are only a click away.Is the solution not allowing children and teenagers to have e-mail addresses or having some certain controller based limitations to enable everyone to surf in the Internet without being harrassed?”

An Overview of Internet Use in Turkey

Web-sites based on sexual issues have become very popular in Turkey, where the use of internet has risen dramatically.According to the researchers, mostly the words “erotic,porno,sex” are being searched using “search motors”.The managers of ‘tümtürkiye.com’, a leading search motor which enables to reach any Turkish sites; inform that the use of internet in Turkey has impressive results.Statistics from January to June 2000 indicate that approximately 18456 visitors were detected daily.The first 10 words searched during the visits include ‘erotic,porno,sex,chat;and “crack”, a word used by those trying to decipher ‘Cine 5 security code’,’Erotic, porno,sex’ words are %14 of the total words searched.

The rate of the words within the whole visits and the first top 10 words searcher are: Erotic:%10.83, mp3 %3.32; cine 5%2.13; crack %1.95, porno %1.52; sex %1.33; internet %1.30; chat %1.09; newspapers %0.60, stock market %0.83.

Data processed in October 2000 through “search motor” indicated that “words” searched remained same.In October approximately 31763 visits to the ‘search’ and most searched words and their rate within the total amount is:erotic %4.23; sex %1.58; crack %1.92; cine 5 %1.82; mp3 %4.23; porno %1.32; internet %1.09; chat%1.09; stock market %0.83; newspapers %0.60.

Searches increase on Fridays and Saturdays, internet connection is usually in the morning hours, reaches its peak about 17.00 and begins to decrease early in the evening (http:// www.nethaber.com/haber/haberlernet “Türkiye sanal alemde seks peşinde”,23.10.2002).

The Turkey Constitutional Court had decided to uphold portions of a controversial communication law that gives the Turkish government as much control over the Internet as it exercises on the rest of the country’s media.

The law says ISP’s could face heavy fines for any libellous comments or false news published on the web.As part of the new legislation, websites may have to be officially registered and may have to submit their material to authorities for approval (ASCL Cyber law Newsletter,Asian Schol of Cyber Laws,24.06.2002)

Child Protection Agencies

Child Protection agencies online have been established mainly in the USA and most have had a history of at least five to seven years.While most of these are Per se non-commercial, some also have commercial aspects(like sale of books) to contribute to their sustenance.Others have a page for surfers to make donations online with tax rebates or other tax incentive measures.

Cyberangels seeks basically to educate parents, teachers and child Internet users on online safety. Safeguarding Our Children—United Mothers is similarly oriented to public awareness, education and prevention of child abuse.

ECPAT International (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) works today on political action, lawmaking and law enforcemeent, awareness-raising in the tourist industry, education and media coverage.

Telefono Arcobaleno(Rainbow Telephone) in Sicily, where a priest, Don Fortunado di Noto and his team of technicians, trace pornographers and traffickers of children in all parts of the globe, using technical tools and the Internet.

The Movement Against Paedophile on the Internet is a research group working on paedophilia and child pornography on the Internet.Their objectives are to promote interdisciplinary research on the field, inform the users of Internet and be available for the Internet providers concerning advice and recommendations.

Casa Alianza, a non-governmentl rgaisation is dedicated to the rehabilitation and defence of street children in Guatemala,Honduras, and Mexico.Casa Alianza monitors and cares for about 3000 street children, most of whom have been orphaned by civil war, abused or rejected by their families, and who as a result are begging, stealing or selling themselves for a hot meal, a shower and a clean bed.

While UNESCO is not Per se e child protection agency, it has established a major web site called Innocence in Danger to act as a gateway to fellow child protection organizations.(A summary from Carlos A.Arnaldo,”The Naked, Hairy Caveman:Child Abuse on the Internet”,Children in the NewMedia Landscape: Games, Pornography, Perceptions, Editors:Cecilia von Feilitzen and Ulla Carlsson, The UNESCO International Clearinghouse on Children and Violence on the Screen at Nordicom, Göteborg, 2000).

Convention on CyberCrime* of the Council of Europe(23 November 2001/Budapest) The convention is the first international treaty on crimes committed via the Internet and other computer networks, dealing particularly with infringements of copyright, computer-related fraud, child pornography and violations of network security.

Its main objective, set out in the preamble, is to pursue a common criminal policy aimed at the protection of society against cybercrime, especially by adopting appropriate legislation and fostering international co-operation.

The Convention is the product of four years of work by Council of Europe experts, but also by the United States, Canada, Japan and other countries which are not members of the Organisation.It will be supplemented by an Additional Protocol making any publication of racist and xenophobic propaganda via computer networks a criminal office.

CONCLUSION

Sexual exploitation commenced as a result of wide use of Internet has become a threat to, especially, children.
Web-sites reached easily by young adults and, even children, who are not mature enough to recognize this issue mentioned properly aand clearly, have some features.Children and young adults, even though better today, still have difficulties in communicating with their parents about “sexual issues”.Web-sites providing information on the issue mentioned are beneficial to exchange information.

However, it is a fact that majority of these web-sites based on sexual issue” suggest that “sex” is something completely isolated from emotions, feelings of affection, and provokes sadistic and masochistic inclinations.

The fact that use of children sexuality on these sites can be reached easily needs to be brought close attention.Children’s seeing other children of age unusually, strangely by means of computer on her/his desk causes them to experience distortion of sexuality.

Another important point that should be considered seriously is that majority of children exploited on these sites are girls.The existence of these sites not only increases exploitation of children but encourages this abuse.

On the other hand, relations between boys, who are able to reach the pictures of “these girls” by means of Internet, and their girl friends at school are suspectible to problems in communication that requires respect and equality.

This process not only discourages “girls” regarding their sexual development and social status, but in the long term has a negative influence on “women rights” provoking the inclination that “women are sexual objects”.

We strongly agree that it is people’s right to reach any data through internet and to take part actively in the use of this network; however, there be some restrictions to prevent some groups of people from negative effects of this network and to control those aiming to abuse this. Legal justification should be made in addition to some preventions such as filter-use for the children. Effective precautions be taken by the countries such as media education, filter programs for children, which have not released “Communication Law” yet, since internet has become a common and widely used medium transferring “information”.

*This paper was presented at the 1st International symposium of Interactive Media Design 13-15 January 2003,Yeditepe University,pp.63-67.

15.01.2003