Date:06/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/06/stories/2008070657250600.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Internet usage: technology can help protect children from potential abusers

Ramya Kannan

CHENNAI: Using technology to track internet usage could help protect children from potential abusers seeking to get close to them, representatives of Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre, U.K., have said.

A lot of children are tech-savvy and use the internet, allowing strangers access to personal information, says Jason Steele, European Union Internet Safety Project Manager.

“We do not want to ban the internet, but children will have to be aware of safety concerns and have fun,” he adds. CEOP Centre has trained about 2 million children in the U.K. and is working on curriculum inputs too.

It also has a regular online monitoring system which tracks trends, patterns and behaviours based on the site reports captured and with the involvement of internet service providers.

These reports go into the development of educational resources that support and benefit children.

A youth panel whets all products designed for the end-user.

CEOP Centre tracks indecent images of children that are posted on the internet, says Tim Gerrish, its head of training, who has experience as a law enforcement officer in the U.K. “It is a serious sexual crime. The fact that it is an image somewhere on the ether makes it difficult for people to look at the seriousness of what they are viewing,” he says.

Mr.Gerrish and Mr.Steele are in India to interact with children, schools, law officers and NGOs, including TULIR-CPHSA.

“Each image, technically, is capable of some investigation. So we have a whole team of people dedicated to what we call victim identification. They will look for new indecent images and try and investigate that image so that the child can be protected from harm, wherever in the world,” Mr. Gerrish explains.

With the aid of an Interpol-like network of nations, intelligence is shared on such images with members.

CEOP Centre has also been running a “Most Wanted” website that hosts images of offenders who are considered to pose a threat to children. Since November 2006, 14 such images have been posted online and with public assistance, 10 of them have been tracked down, according to Mr. Gerrish.

“This again underscores the need that it would have to be a multi-agency effort. No one agency can solve this alone. We need to work with other partners… The overarching fact is that every child matters everywhere and we need to protect them.”