Intelligent Choice Computers special report Protecting our children by Jodie Turner

"Child Pornography is more accurately refered to as child sexual abuse or rape images . . . not just pictures, nor a virtual child, but a real child and victim."

- RCMP Corporal David Fox

Quick links to other sections

• Child Pornography is sexual abuse
• Get involved - know what your children are doing
• Online activities of interest to children 8 and up
• Common language used by children online
• Risks for Children on Internet
• Links

Child pornography - It's a crime
to have it, distribute it, produce it or keep quiet about it

It's a criminal offence to possess or access child pornography.

"It's against the law to log on to child pornography sites," says Acting Deputy Chief Sgt. John Collyer, Bridgewater police service. Doing so from a public computer doesn't make it any better. As for not reporting the crime - that too, is against the law.

Collyer's been with the department over 17 years. Since May '07, he's been acting deputy chief - operational commander of General Patrol and General Intelligence Section (GIS).

Child pornography falls under Section 163 of the Canadian Criminal Code which covers the indictable offences of distribution, possession and accessing photos, film, videotapes and computer files.

Perpetrator's path: from looking to producing

Child pornography has a devastating component of progression. "With my first prosecution," recalls the sergeant, "he went from watching to collecting. Then to get the 'good stuff' he had to anti-up stuff of his own."

In Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, a recent first-time offender was in possession of 4,000 images plus video cassettes. He had graduated to producing child pornography and was sentenced to one year in custody and two years in probation.

To be rated as child pornography, a young person must be victimized - from posing to actually performing. "That's hard core," he notes. "We're seeing more and more of that all the time - horrific images that are hard to investigate."

There is some local production of child pornography. It tends to be a father abusing his daughters, but the criminal can be anyone known by the child.

"It's very difficult for police to track victims," says Collyer. "They could be here, Toronto, Atlanta, the Philippines. Larger police agencies in Toronto and Montreal are leaders in the worldwide fight against child pornography."

Police in partnership with the community

A computer tech may be looking for a virus and up comes a nasty pop up - a window to a porn site with young girls and children. The RCMP Tech Crime Unit can easily determine if it was an accidental download or something more sinister.

At the heart of the investigation is the computer's memory bank. A trackable trace is left from wherever the user visits while online. This alerts the officers to look further - despite the accused protestations to the contrary, they can and do find child pornography stored on floppy discs and hard drives.

A parent checks a child's chat log. The inappropriate communication sets off alarm bells and the police are called. GIS and RCMP Tech Crime units take over. The "friendly" fellow turns out to be a perpetrator looking for innocent girls to expose themselves to their web cams.

With the Internet, child porn took off like wildfire. Larger police units can dedicate their resources to the criminal practice. It's a substantial investment for smaller organizations to develop a level of knowledge, training, equipment. "We're doing that slowly, but surely," notes Collyer.

"We have limited resources - to provide the best service to the community it behooves us to form a partnership with the Tech Crime Unit of the RCMP." Another resource is the provincially-funded ICE: Internet Child Exploitation. (See following article)

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"Child Pornography is more accurately refered to as child sexual abuse or rape images . . . not just pictures, nor a virtual child, but a real child and victim."
- RCMP Corporal David Fox

RCMP Corporal David Fox works with Nova Scotia I.C.E.: Internet Child Exploitation Unit. "Child Pornography is more accurately refered to as child sexual abuse or rape images," notes Fox, ". . . not just pictures, nor a virtual child, but a real child and victim." Younger children - and even babies are used to feed the perverted appetites of criminals.

Fox is one of four unit members working out of downtown Dartmouth. They look after the entire province except for Halifax Regional which is served by its own three-person unit.

As well, they work with National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre - NCECC and units in the United States and abroad. A child in New Brunswick reported to a website in Australia. They contacted the FBI, who alerted NCECC. Within 24 hours, the child was rescued.

Protecting our children - girls 13 - 15 at highest risk

The Internet simplifies the collection, distribution and production of child pornography. Social networking brings the risk into our homes. Girls 13 - 15 years of age are at the highest risk. Not helping the situation is the Canadian law which declares the age of consent as 14, rather than 16 years. This makes our young more appealing to those in the business of child pornography.

How to protect our children? Be vigilant - aware of what they are doing on-line. The Internet is a public domain, knowing what your children are doing on-line is not an invasion of their privacy.

Locate his or her computer in a well-traveled area rather than their bedroom. Limit, or better yet, eliminate web cams.

If your child wants to meet someone in person, with whom they've developed an online friendship, they need to do so in a public place and with a group of their peers.

Don't assume your child would never agree to meet a cyber-friend. One-in-five Canadian children do precisely that. Police officers no longer preach against it - instead they stress making it a safe meeting.

Have you seen a disturbing website or received an unwanted message? Report online abuse to Cybertip. You can report anonymously if you wish.

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Get involved: Know what your children are doing on-line

Communicate openly and encourage your child to share their feelings.

Reinforce the idea that online, not everyone is who they say they are.

Before your child or adolescent comes across something or someone that makes her/him feel uncomfortable, be sure there is an understanding that telling you about it will not result in loss of computer privileges.

• Check the websites your children visit - review their history files
  Open Internet Explorer and click the toolbar button at the top of the page for history files (looks like a clock). To adjust the number of days it keeps the history, go to the Tools button, select Internet Options, then the General tab. At the bottom is the history section
  
  .
• View your children's instant messaging (IM) logs
  such as MSN Messenger, AIM, YI Messenger. For example, open MSN Messenger and log in as the user you want to track, select Tools, Options, Messages. Near the bottom is the Message History setting. Tick the box next to "Automatically keep a history of my conversations." Open the folder where the logs are saved to review your child's IM activity.
  
  Feeling left out in the dark when it comes to instant or text messaging? Get your child to teach you the ropes.
  
  
• Permission first
  Check to see your children's IM program is set up so no one can speak to them without their permission. With MSN messenger, select Tools, Options, Privacy. Ensure the box is ticked next to "Alert me when other people add me to their contact list."
  
  
• Who am I?
  Check your child's profile on free e-mail accounts such as Hotmail or Yahoo!
  
  
• Use filtering software - click on Cybertip's Information for Parents
  
  
• Supervise your child while online - consider putting the computer in a common area such as the kitchen, family room.
  
  
• Explore games your child is playing - are they age appropriate? Is the game moderated? Does it contain sexually explicit material? Is it graphically violent?
  
  
• Know your child's login information and email addresses. What username or character name has your child given him/herself?
  
  
• Help in the creation of online profiles when your child joins sites. When signing up for games, provide a family or parental email account rather than your child's address
  
  
• Limit the amount of time your child spends online
  
  
• Monitor web cam use and posting or exchanging of pictures online
  
  
• Do not allow communicating in unregulated chat rooms
  
  

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Online activities of interest to children 8 and up

• Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) & Forums (eg Nexopia, STLpunk)
  Online public discussion boards for chatting with others, sending and receiving email and uploading and downloading files. Users can view and/or comment on posted messages.
  
  
• Chat rooms (eg YahooChat, MIRC)
  Online meeting space where members can chat with several others in real time. Similar to a party line, but involves typing. Some chat rooms are monitored, but most are uncontrolled and unsupervised
  
  
• Instant Messaging (eg MSN, Yahoo Messenger)
  Electronic communication involving components of chat and email. After downloading IM software, users maintain lists of buddies/friends and are notified when their contacts are online. Short text messages are sent back and forth. Some IM programs include file transfer, web cam viewing, voice chat etc.
  
  
• Peer to Peer Programs (eg Limewire, Bearshare, Blogger, Xanga)
  
  Programs allow users to establish a connection and have direct access to shared files on each other's computers. Allows exchange of images, videos, music etc without using a centralized server.
  
  
• Weblogs or Blogs (eg My space, MSN Spaces)
  Contains writings, postings, images about various topics. Free to create and available for public viewing on the Internet, used as journals to discuss creators thoughts and opinions.
  
  

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Kids in the Know photo

Common language used by children online <3 heart A/S/L? age/sex/location BF boyfriend F2F face to face GF girlfriend

H&K hugs and kisses

ILU or ILY I love you

IPN I'm posting naked

IWALU I will always love you

KOTL Kiss on the lips

LDR Long distance relationship

LMIRL Let's meet in real life

NIFOC Naked in front of computer

NP Nosy parents

PAW Parents are watching

POS Parents over shoulder

PM Private message

QT Cutie

SOMY? Sick of me yet?

TOY Thinking of you

WTGP? - Want to go private?

WUF? - Where are you from?

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Risks for Children on the Internet

• Exposure to sexually explicitly material
• Public nature and permanence of the Internet - once information has been sent, user loses control
  of how it may be used
• Building dangerous relationships on line
• Chat component of games
• Complying with threats

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Helpful links

• Kids in the Know
  Information on child safety for Grades Primary - High School. Kids in the Know is an interactive safety education program for increasing the personal safety of children and reducing their risk of sexual exploitation.
  
  
• Cybertip
  Web portal for receiving and addressing reports of online child sexual exploitation: child abuse images (pornography); online luring, child sex tourism and children exploited through prostitution. useful
  information for parents, teachers, youth professionals and young Canadians to help protect children from sexual exploitation on the Internet.
  
  If you know about a child who is in immediate danger or risk, call 911, your local police or Cybertip's toll free line at 1-866-658-9022
  
  
• Government Initiatives Protecting Children Against Exploitation
  
  
• Protecting children on line - Microsoft (2005)
  
  
• Internet 101
  The Internet 101 motto is "Police and partners . . . working together to web-proof our
  communities." Just as we teach our kids to safely navigate the streets of our cities, we need to do the same for the digital highway we call the Internet. A committee of police forces, led by the RCMP, created and maintains this website, a collection of safety tips, helpful presentations and links to further police-approved resources to help kids and parents surf safely.
  
  
• National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre
  
  NCECC is a national clearing house and coordination centre for all international requests to conduct investigations in Canada related to child sexual exploitation on the Internet:
  
  
  • providing support to peace officers, in particular investigators involved in files dealing with child
    sexual exploitation on the Internet;
    
    
  • building relationships and collaborating with domestic and international partners to raise awareness and combat criminal activity that targets, exploits and abuses children; and
    
    
  • helping to develop standards and guidelines within Canada and providing many levels of support to law enforcement investigators involved in files dealing with the sexual exploitation of children on the Internet.
    
    

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