TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Interpol Launches Task Force on Child Sex Abuse

Interpol Launches Task Force on Child Sex Abuse

Reuters News Wire (reuters@telecom-digest.org)
Wed, 17 Jan 2007 16:12:04 -0600

Interpol said on Wednesday it was launching a special task force to
tackle a growing problem of pedophiles using fake "modeling" sites on
the Internet to gain access to children.

The sites do not contain sexually graphic images, but serve as a
front, enabling pedophiles to contact the site owners and gain
physical access to the so-called child models, or to buy images of the
children being abused.

"This trend requires the urgent attention of law enforcement, but the
significant investigative resources required are simply not available
in most national police forces, which is why Interpol is launching
Project Guardian," Ronald Noble, head of the world police body, said
at a Paris conference on child abuse.

He said officers on the task force would also investigate the
involvement of organized crime in many of the sites.

Interpol said it would spend 1 million euros ($1.29 million) to launch
Project Guardian, recruiting two police experts for two years and
funding six international coordination meetings.

In a high-tech approach to combating child pornography, it has built
up a vast database of images, and uses recognition software to
establish links between victims and crime scenes, even when the photos
are taken in anonymous indoor settings.

In one case, Interpol linked a photo of a young girl found on a
computer in the United States to a series of pictures from Belgium
showing a different child in the same room.

The police computer made the link by recognizing the wallpaper and the
pattern on a pillowcase, and investigators eventually succeeded in
tracing the victims and the abuser.

Interpol says the database has so far helped to identify and rescue
more than 500 victims around the world. With funding from the Group of
Eight nations, it will pilot a new scheme this year giving national
investigators access to the database and to those held by police in
other countries.

Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited.

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[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So why should pedophiles or other sex
offenders have to tell the truth about themselves on the internet? No
one else does. For a good illustration of this, please go to:
http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/td-extra/honesty.html PAT]

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