Fighting child porn

Measures are being taken world over to tackle global child sex abuse

United Kingdom: Technology companies have made significant progress since July,when David Cameron urged them to do more to eradicate these depraved and disgusting images. For example,200 employees of Google have been targeting 100,000 search terms in order to locate pictures of child pornography. YouTube engineers have found a way to identify videos created by and for paedophiles,and Google and Microsoft have been collaborating to identify pictures of child pornography. This announcement had come before a meeting in Downing Street about joint Anglo-American law enforcement on child pornography,which will ally the expertise of the FBI and other UK agencies with the private sector. Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said that he would soon roll out the changes in more than 150 languages,so the impact will be truly global.

NEW ZEALAND: A Bill envisaging tougher penalties for online child sex abuse trading passed its first reading in Parliament in November. The Department of Internal Affairs has already blocked 34 million attempts within New Zealand to access at least one of 582 child sex abuse sites blocked by government filters since 2010. Nearly all Internet providers have signed up to the filter,covering 2.5 million connections. Sex crimes units in New Zealand and Australia were among those contacted by Canada Police to help with Project Spade. Offenders could face sentences up to five years and fines up to NZ 50,000. Distribution carries a penalty of up to 14 years imprisonment. Production too is considered a form of child sex abuse,which is punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment or fines up to NZ 200,000.

Australia: The Australian- based component of Project Spade,known as Operation Thunderer,charged 66 people with a range of offences including accessing,possessing,producing and distributing online child exploitation material. Child pornography laws in Australia prohibit all sexual depictions of children under the age of 18 or under 16 in some states. Further,there is a zero-tolerance policy in place that covers fictional children as well as real children. The possession,production,distribution,import,export,sale,or access over the internet of child pornography is punishable by a maximum of 10 years imprisonment and/or a fine up to A 120,000.

Canada: Spearheaded Project Spade. Possession of child pornography is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Production and distribution of child pornography is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Browsing for child pornography on the internet is punishable by up to five years in prison. There is an exception for material with artistic merit or for educational,scientific or medical purposes. The law against simple possession of child pornography was declared void in British Columbia by a 1998 provincial court ruling,but this decision was overturned two years later by the Canadian Supreme Court.

Compiled by Aleesha Matharu