Few of us are shocked by the mention of porn, or even blink at the mention of internet porn, not for the fact that one likes it presence, but the mention of child porn is another story in its own self. Yet while we are shocked and outraged by its existence it is the widest used medium for the sexual exploitation of minors. The internet is this vast seemingly uncontrollable world were things run like wild fires and once out there, there is no way to ever really get it back. Therefore a child victimized by online child sexual exploitation is never free from abuse, continually revictimized by the knowledge that the images remain forever lost in the virtual world. The online commercial child pornography industry is a multi-billion dollar industry, which continues to rise as the use of the internet grows. Due to the fact that many child pornography sites use credit cards and other electronic methods to process payments made by pedophiles, banks and credit card companies have a great opportunity and position to stop the cash flow to these sites and shut them down.
Across the globe investigators are cracking down on internet child porn and the greatest successes are coming as they begin to form more alliances with credit card and internet companies. Much of the new success comes after years of pushing credit card companies and ISPs to do more to block access to illegal materials. Earlier this year the European Commission launched the European Financial Coalition (EFC), which is led by the UK’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Center and a dedicated police team. Founding members of the coalition included MasterCard, Microsoft, PayPal, Visa Europe, Missing Children Europe, and Allen & Overy LLP. The EFC will help identify and protect victims by focusing on the online payment and following the financial trail (Reuters). Success in Europe tracking credit card data has already been seen as German Police Smash Child Porn Ring Using Credit Card Data
“We’ve used an entirely new method of investigating this crime and all financial institutions here have been very forthcoming and cooperative in it,” said Torsten Meyer, the operation’s chief investigator. “We’ve been able to arrest 322 suspects in all of Germany, most of them rather affluent people who paid for the incriminating material with their credit cards.”
Efforts such as these are far from quick and simple, and only work with the cooperation across the board from local and international law enforcement, financial institutions and internet companies. As seen in the German case while 322 arrests were made, investigators were unable to gain access to the data for another 20 million credit cards Much still needs to be done to step-up the fight against child sexual exploitation in all forms, but forming alliances with companies and law enforcement is a great step forward.
As we continue to build bigger and stronger alliances prosecutions will surely increase as will more and more sites be shut down. However sadly the world of child pornography is unremitting, the more and more investigators dig the more they find, one victim leads to another and another. While finding the end to the perpetrators will never cease, the Internets vast reach has made it near impossible that the all of the perpetrators, let alone the perpetrators will ever be found. Many sites are more difficult to track pedophiles on as they do not use financial data, some even more disturbingly accept payment in the form of other child pornographic images for access to child pornographic sites and video downloads.
Please report any sexual exploitation of children to the CyberTipline.
