Blocking websites will help protect children

Blocking websites is not the optimal way to curb the distribution of images of child abuse, but it is a necessary tool.

I am writing on behalf of the European NGO Alliance for Child Safety Online (eNACSO) to set out more fully why the EU should support website ‘blocking’ provisions in the European Commission’s proposal on combating sexual abuse, the sexual exploitation of children and child pornography (“Commission seeks to block child porn websites”, EuropeanVoice.com, 29  March). 

In one of your articles on the subject (“Critics chide Commission plans to fight sexual exploitation”, 25-31 March), a critic dismissed the proposal, arguing that “all it does is make the politicians look as if they are addressing the problem”. This is misleading. It is an important initiative.

eNACSO would prefer sites with images of child abuse to be removed from the internet completely. However, that process, known as ‘notice and take down’, is simply not happening quickly enough in too many important countries outside the EU.

The authorities in EU countries cannot take down images hosted on a server in another country. International co-operation is therefore needed to achieve faster take-down times but, so far, co-operation has proven to be ineffective. Images are taken down at an unacceptably slow pace – often due to differing resources and policing priorities.

Differences in legal systems are another obstacle; indeed, research by the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children shows that many countries still have no laws in place to address these crimes.

The EU and its member states should work to improve international co-operation to close down sites carrying images of child abuse, wherever they are in the world. But until this is 100% effective, blocking must be available as an extra tool.

We reject the argument that blocking access to images of child abuse creates a ‘slippery slope’, thereby constituting a threat to liberal democracy. There is no doubt that blocking technologies can be used for undesirable ends, but this does not mean that they should never be used to pursue legitimate goals. The blocking provisions in the directive must be viewed within the context in which they are to be used, to help realise children’s rights to protection from abuse. There should also be safeguards to ensure that child-protection arguments are not used to justify blocking for other purposes.

Criminals will always try to find new ways to circumvent measures taken to combat them. However, blocking has a crucial role to play both in preventing people from developing or feeding a sexual interest in children and in preventing ordinary internet browsers from stumbling across such material.

Blocking is not an alternative to identifying and protecting those children who appear in abusive images. Nor is it intended as an alternative to finding and prosecuting the criminals who produce and distribute such images. For that, other and complementary measures are required.

As the voice of leading NGOs from 18 European countries, we consider the directive to be an important step to protect children in the EU and we very much hope it will receivethe broadest measure of support.

 

From:

Naureen Khan

Acting chairwoman

eNACSO

London

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