Child Pornography is the photographing, filming, videotaping, artistic
rendering or writing of explicit or implied sexual activity of
children, the final product of these acts and the activity of
distributing these items. On a worldwide basis, Child Pornography
generated approximately US$3 billion in 2004 (CDN$4 billion, GBP 2
billion). While Child Pornography has existed throughout history, the
introduction of technology such as the Internet, digital image
technology and storage has fostered the exponential growth of this
crime. There are paedophiles and organized child sex rings that thrive
off of, and propagate this crime without regard or remorse for their
victims. The typical age range of their victims is from 3 to 12 years
of age. The act of Child Pornography sees the innocent trust of an
unknowing child betrayed, a child coerced or tricked into an abusive
situation, or a child threatened with violence in order to perform. The
scars left on a child from these acts will last a lifetime.
Five percent of all adult Internet traffic contains some form of Child
Pornography while three percent of adult websites offer access to
illegal Child Pornography. Each day approximately 75 million e-mails
worldwide contain some form of Child Pornography and each month
approximately 45 million files are downloaded or shared worldwide.
Today, the major challenge for law enforcement in stopping Child
Pornography and Child Pornographers lies in the ability to identify the
perpetrators and distribution of this material. Given the limited
resources available, law enforcement has been able to make some gains
in reducing Child Pornography. The trend by most governments is
to legislate Internet Service Providers into filtering content so that
Child Pornography doesn’t reach subscribers computers and report
subscribers that may be suspect. Furthermore, sentencing of Child
Pornographers is seldom in tune with the crime and its impact on
society. Most white collar crimes will carry stiffer penalties
than a crime of child pornography. While this shields the public
and restricts access and distribution for low level pornographers it
does very little to apprehend those directly involved at the source of
manipulating the world’s children.
However, the major governments of the world have the technology in
place to shut down 60% to 70% of Child Pornography on the Internet and
identify those responsible. The problem lies in political will and
receiving the mandate to do so.
In 1971 a system known as ECHELON was established by the United States,
the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The purpose of
ECHELON was and still is today, to monitor and intercept global
communications for the purpose of national security interests between
the five countries. Using supercomputers and skilled intelligence
analysts, the system monitors 3 billion communications daily including
telephone calls, e-mail messages, Internet downloads, satellite
transmissions, video transmissions and several other communications
modalities. Regardless of whether the communication is sent by radio
waves, cable, fibre or infrared ECHELON has the capability to "listen
in". The system monitors all of the world's communications
indiscriminately and then filters out or selects specific transmissions
based on keyword phrases, digital signatures, digital image values and
other preprogrammed criteria using a combination of artificial
intelligence, fuzzy logic and the power of supercomputers.
It is not surprising that ECHELON routinely monitors 90% of all of the
world's Internet traffic. With this capability alone, ECHELON could
intercept and identify 67 million e-mails containing Child Pornography
on a daily basis and track these back to the originator and recipient.
This action alone, if properly followed up would lock down the Internet
and lock out 60% of the distribution of Child Pornography world wide,
leading to the arrest of those involved. ECHELON is the largest signals
intelligence (SIGINT) system in the world. In addition, there are
smaller, national systems of similar capability operated in the United
States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the
European Union, Russia, China, Germany, Israel, France and India.
In a perfect world, ECHELON and these smaller national SIGINT (Signals
Intelligence) systems would be utilized to aid law enforcement in the
war on Child Pornography. But sadly, this is not the case. The United
States government refuses to officially, publicly acknowledge that
ECHELON exists while the other four countries involved in the system
have accepted the fact that the majority of their citizens know about
the system in general terms but are not forthcoming on any other
information regarding these systems that their citizens pay for via
their taxes.
As of 20 June 2005 I had assembled a petition consisting of well over 5
million signatories from around the globe that reflected my efforts of
a full year of lobbying and mobilizing the world’s Internet community
in an effort to use this untapped resource to save the world’s children
from being victims of Child Pornography. While some may balk at this
mere 5 million, it has been quite an accomplishment considering that
despite my own personal activities in the North American mainstream
broadcast media, this initiative received virtually no promotion or
mention in the North American broadcast or print media. Sadly, it
simply was not newsworthy enough. This petition was digitally presented
on this same date to the five sovereign signatories involved in ECHELON
to urge them to use this system in the identification of Child
Pornography and as an aid to local law enforcement in the apprehension
of Child Pornographers. It is my sincerest hope, that this
initiative, dubbed “The Ing Initiative" may be given consideration by
the world’s governments.
I began this initiative because I believed and still believe that it is
better to take a stand on an issue rather than leave it alone because
it may not be popular, politically correct or that someone else or
government should take care of it. I hope that you will consider
joining me.
Whether you have participated in my petition or are just learning about
this initiative, it is still not too late. Please write your
local federal government representative and tell him or her how you
feel about Child Pornography.
We have the technology to stop Child Pornography. Let's use it!
About the Author
Dr. Robert Ing is a forensic intelligence specialist and has appeared
on North American news networks on the issues of technology crime,
computer security, privacy and identity theft.
For more articles by Dr. Robert Ing please visit www.drroberting.com
Permission is granted to publish this article electronically or in
print, free of charge, as long as the article appears in its entirety,
full credit is given to the author and a link or reference to the author's webpage www.drroberting.com is provided.
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