Child Abuse - What is it

CHILD RAPE & ABUSE
THE INTERNET & CHILD PORN

September, 1999, Mail & Guardian

South Africa's policing and justice services are to begin putting pressure on internet service providers to control paedophilia and child sex sites - including a demand that they provide details of users who logon to those sites if an investigation requi res it.

The SA Law Commission is recommending that all child porn be outlawed.

South Africa intends following the US example too with "art" using child porn, in the US it has been argued in courts that "child pornography is art protected by the First Amendment Freedom of Speech" however, the counter-argument is that "child pornogra phy is not constitutionally protected expression under US law."

SA is following the lead of the International Association of Prosecutors that have begun trailing paedophiles across internet sites across the world and prosecuting users and abusers. In the USA some FBI agents are assigned to track paedophiles by posing as children and luring paedophiles.

Prosecutors attending a forum at the offices of National Prosecutor, Bulelani Ngcuka in early September, 1999, saw a US Federal Bureau of Investigator detective display to SA prosecutors how paedophiles flocked to a site when he logged on pretending he was a 13-year-old girl interested in meeting older people.

A report by the International Association of Prosecutors shows that "chat channels and rooms, message boards, and electronic mail are also being used for another sinister purpose: paedophiles luring children for sex. Sometimes the paedophile lies about his age. Sometimes he seems to comfort the child who may be going through difficult times with his or her parents at home. Then, after the vulnerable child befriends his new acquaintance the dicussion turns to sex and a meeting is arranged. Child sex abusers, 30 or 40 years old, are willing to travel thousands of miles for the opportunity to meet boys and girls 13 or 14 years old. In some case, the on-line child abusers have 5 or 6 such relationships underway at once."

The report notes that "child abusers no longer have to wander around schoolyards and shopping centres looking for children."

When police in one country begin searching a computer in one country, they often find the data being sought may be in a server in another country. Last year an international paedophile ring using the internet was identified with more than 200 members, only 100 have been identified but the investigation and prosecution of the group continues across 12 countries.

SA prosecutors have suggested to government that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) be compelled to hold records of their clients for at least 12 months and be compelled to reveal them when an investigation is underway - those ISPs that either do not comply, or are found to have sites that threaten the safety of children will be prosecuted.

South African prosecutors have also called for better sharing of information with other countries on paedophile rings and faster extradition processes.

Investigators find that children are at risk because parents either don't supervise their children's Internet access, or don't provide filters to restrict their access to pornography.

FBI agent Christopher Avery told the Forum that the "effective investigation and prosecution of child exploitation offences requires sustained and well organised commitment of human and financial resources. There is a strong need to instill public confidence in law enforcement's ability to cath, and the prosecutors ability to convict and the courts ability to punish offenders. This allows greater protection for children and their ability to grow and experience childhood without the trauma of sexual or physical victimisation."

SA police have complained that a lack of manpower and resources have made it almost impossible to give the sustained time and effort to tracking down paedophile rings, and a lack of computers makes internet tracking impossible.