AU crime-fighters want real-world rules brought online

By Abby Dinham, ZDNet Australia
17 June 2004 05:05 PM
Tags: paedophile, sex, law, global, uk, fbi, abby, ncs
The Australian High Tech Crime Centre (AHTCC) is trying to bring the rules of the "physical world" to the online environment in its international joint initiative to put police in Internet chat-rooms, said Alastair MacGibbon, the body's director.

MacGibbon told ZDNet Australia  that the initiative is designed to make the general public see Internet chat-rooms as a public place as to uphold the laws that are mandated in physical human interaction.

The formation of the International Virtual Global Taskforce was announced following a three-day summit in London last week, with its intention being to make the Internet a safer place for children.

The taskforce was initially established by Britain's National Crime Squad (NCS), and now comprises the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the United States FBI and its Homeland Securities department along with the AHTCC.

MacGibbon described the move as a collaborative approach to a global problem.

"We have come together in a commitment to discover ways of discouraging sex-offenders, to deter possible offenders and to disrupt the groups of people that do exist from engaging in these activities. We also need to educate the parents and families of the danger," said MacGibbon.

"The idea behind the global task force is of mutual responsibility for this problem," he adds.

Although MacGibbon could not divulge the details of the initiative's methodology, as the program is still in its infancy, he said a "24/7 police presence online will be involved in the actualisation of the initiative".

"Most likely what will happen is that the task being online will rotate through the members of the taskforce. As the sun goes down on one the other will take over," he said.

However, MacGibbon asserts that the assessment or investigation of any offenders will fall to the country in which the suspect is located.

MacGibbon said behaviour that will be deemed inappropriate will be judged on a case to case basis in each of the various jurisdiction, but activities that are to be seen as "grooming" or "procuring" children for sex or the sharing of child pornography will not be tolerated.

"Ultimately it will depend on the jurisdiction and determinations of the laws in the different countries," he said. "Some cases may not go as far as investigation. The simple cases of improper behaviour may just require a warning."

"It's about weighing up the offence and the crimes to getting an appropriate police response as in other physical crimes. It's the same philosophy online."

Yet, MacGibbon admits that the initiative will not eliminate the problem, instead he said it's the first step in "recognising a problem of global proportion".

"I think you need to be realistic about law enforcement in an online environment. It's going to be a long march," he said. "But I think if we can save one child from being abused or deter one person from committing an offence then it's an activity worth doing."

Child sex offences have been facilitated by information and communication technologies, said MacGibbon, by giving offenders access to children away from their parents and a channel to swap child pornography. However, he said this initiative address the issue by educating users on what behaviour is acceptable in the online world.

"Part of the message that we're trying to give to parents or families is that online conversation should be compared to that in the physical world," MacGibbon said. He illustrates the point by saying that parents wouldn't tolerate strangers having inappropriate conversation with their children in the "physical world" and therefore shouldn't tolerate it online.

MacGibbon said the initiative will continue to evolve as the problem dictates.

"There is no silver bullet to this crime or any crime, but you need to start somewhere. There's a very realistic agenda that we will adhere to as to improve the global response," he said. "But it will be measured in terms of years."

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Talkback 3 comments

    what a laugh... trying to put ...Anonymous -- 17/06/04

    what a laugh... trying to put real-world situation through an electronic medium..and then applying laws...

    when will you monkeys learn....when you speak to someone it involves sounds from your mouth (speech), movement of your hands or body (action) and thats where real laws apply...since it causes a reaction....

    in a chatroom...you type...thats it...you punch a bunch of keys on a plastic keyboard...and you get the same reaction?

    only if your stupid and can't distinguish between a computer screen or reality...

    if i say here ...'i blow up into a million bits'
    so if we relate that to the real world...i've committed suicide...so i go to gaol right?

    c'mon stupid monkeys your forfathers put everyone in gaol in the 1600's and u ended up here on this island...

    you stupid monkeys want to make the same mistakes all over again cause you can't find any bananas to eat or can't make sense of new technology...

    enough of stupid police playing on the net...get them to go out in the real world and stop killings, rapings and pilaging...

    keep dreaming you stupid monkeys...keep suffering....

    I have to disagree with the pr ...Anonymous -- 17/06/04

    I have to disagree with the previous poster. The internet isn't some magic zone where there are no consequences to your actions. It is a hostile place. Naive children may give out their personal details to someone they think is only a pen friend. In fact some general information about their school, their teachers, their sporting clubs or alike is all a pervert would need to locate them. Our law enforcement bodies should be equiped to "patrol" and remove these scum from one of the greatest tools mankind has developed.

    On saying that however, It must be an election year. Some poly will come up with the idea that scum inhabit the internet, and their new AntiScum laws that come into affect on [insert date] will go a long way to making the internet safe again. It might get them some votes from concerned but naive parents, but most of the laws will make a difference. We can not just charge a chinese national with indecent dealings with a minor in a chatroom, and subpoena chat log records and backup tapes from an IM company in the states without active co-operation from China and the US.

    This legal spaghetti of jurisdictions needs to be enforced from a technical spot, not a legal spot. An acceptable behaviour treaty would have to be agreed to by all nations (good luck). It would have to outline procedures for subpoenaing documents, charging and punishing offenders. Countries that refused to sign the treaty would need to have their records removed from the dns system to ensure that people using the internet would be legally ablidged to obey these rules.

    I think it's about bloody time ...Anonymous -- 15/10/04

    I think it's about bloody time,god only knows if i had the right i'd go online with the intent to catch these people out and belt the living fuk out of them... it's a good start i'd say :p
    to coment on the last guy's coment about "why bother" i'd say if u r looking 4 a world in which u can do what u want then i would sugest u "pop" some acid or somthing similar and stay there in ur artificial world where u wont do anyone any harm... "Dont police the internet" A BIT ODD.

    I think they need to set up a system whereby details of chats and the details, profile's, and ip addresses of these people (like the way chats can be saved into notepad) could be sent in quickly to police (a task force set up just for this service) at the push of a button. As most chat rooms r written in java and have full access to ur system at the time of chat i dont see why this cannot be done and why it is not yet done( to take this further i dont see why the chat rooms alow u to chat without a profile and this should be required to chat and join up with these "chat" groups, to add on that... i think the profile's and info needed to join should be verified somhow...WE ALL MUST HAVE A BANK ACCOUNT!!!! why not use the account number as proof of id?

    Upon closer inpection i'd say the world must not care too much about this so i think "I" might.
    I'd gladly devote some of my time to this worthwhile cause.

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