Monday 10 February 2020

DUBLIN: NEW INITIATIVE TO BLOCK CHILD ABUSE WEBSITES


Almost 2,000 Child Abuse Websites to be Blocked Under New Initiative. Internet Users Will Be Redirected to a Garda ‘Stop’ Page When Trying to View Illicit Material 

UPDATED:

The new blocking initiative will mean subscribers who enter a web address that contains child abuse material will be redirected to An Garda Síochána’s “stop page” and notify the user that they are attempting to view illicit material. On Monday, BT Ireland, Eir Ireland, Sky Ireland, Tesco Mobile, Three Ireland and Vodafone Ireland signed a Memorandum of Understanding announcing their decision to block access to Interpol’s 1,857 “worst of” websites that contain child abuse material.

In order for a website domain to be blocked, it must be on the Interpol “Worst of” list (IWOL), which contains domains that provide the most severe child sexual abuse material available on the open web. These websites contain images and videos which feature real children, who are, or appear to be, younger than 13-years-old and the abuse is considered to be “severe”. The domains on this list are verified by Interpol and An Garda Síochána cannot create the list or make any alterations to it.

Purpose: A Garda spokesman said the purpose of preventing access to such pages is to protect consumers, including children, from viewing documented child sexual abuse material, and to prevent the further exploitation of children who have already been abused and photographed or filmed.

Detective Chief Superintendent Declan Daly, from the Garda National Protective Services Bureau (GNPSB), welcomed the service providers commitment to protecting children. “Child abuse material on the internet is an exploitative and demeaning crime. It is a child abuse offence, which has pathways to the contact offending of children,” he said. “The continued introduction of blocking child abuse imagery in Ireland, protects children in our communities by reducing demand, it increases their protection and facilitates a concentration of policing resources towards those who seek to harm children online.”posterposter Under this agreement, the personal data of those seeking to access these sites is not obtained, or transferred, by either the Gardaí or the internet providers. However, it is at the discretion of the internet providers to record the number of attempts made to access blocked websites.

In 2014, UPC, now Virgin Media, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Gardaí regarding the blocking of child abuse material. The decision to extend the initiative to the providers with the “largest share of the market” was included in the Government’s Action Plan for Online Safety.
UPDATE ADDITION:

New powers will be given to the watchdog Ofcom to force social media firms to act over harmful content. Until now, firms like Facebook, Tiktok, YouTube, Snapchat and Twitter have largely been self-regulating. The companies have defended their own rules about taking down unacceptable content, but critics say independent rules are needed to keep people safe. It is unclear what penalties Ofcom will be able to enforce to target violence, cyber-bullying and child abuse.

There have been widespread calls for social media firms to take more responsibility for their content, especially after the death of Molly Russell who took her own life after viewing graphic content on Instagram. Later on Wednesday, the government will officially announce the new powers for Ofcom - which currently only regulates the media, not internet safety - as part of its plans for a new legal duty of care.






Ofcom will have the power to make tech firms responsible for protecting people from harmful content such as violence, terrorism, cyber-bullying and child abuse - and platforms will need to ensure that content is removed quickly. They will also be expected to "minimise the risks" of it appearing at all. "There are many platforms who ideally would not have wanted regulation, but I think that's changing," said Digital Secretary Baroness Nicky Morgan. "I think they understand now that actually regulation is coming."

New powers


Communication watchdog Ofcom already regulates television and radio broadcasters, including the BBC, and deals with complaints about them. This is the government's first response to the Online Harms consultation it carried out in the UK in 2019, which received 2,500 replies. The new rules will apply to firms hosting user-generated content, including comments, forums and video-sharing - that is likely to include Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok.  The intention is that government sets the direction of the policy but gives Ofcom the freedom to draw up and adapt the details. By doing this, the watchdog should have the ability to tackle new online threats as they emerge without the need for further legislation. A full response will be published in the spring. Children's charity the NSPCC welcomed the news. "Too many times social media companies have said: 'We don't like the idea of children being abused on our sites, we'll do something, leave it to us,'" said chief executive Peter Wanless. "Thirteen self-regulatory attempts to keep children safe online have failed. "Statutory regulation is essential."

Seyi Akiwowo set up the online abuse awareness group Glitch after experiencing sexist and racist harassment online after a video of her giving a talk in her role as a councillor was posted on a neo-Nazi forum. "When I first suffered abuse the response of the tech companies was below [what I'd hoped]," she said. "I am excited by the Online Harms Bill - it places the duty of care on these multi-billion pound tech companies."




Global regulation


In many countries, social media platforms are permitted to regulate themselves, as long as they adhere to local laws on illegal material. Germany introduced the NetzDG Law in 2018, which states that social media platforms with more than two million registered German users have to review and remove illegal content within 24 hours of being posted or face fines of up to €5m (£4.2m). Australia passed the Sharing of Abhorrent Violent Material Act in April 2019, introducing criminal penalties for social media companies, possible jail sentences for tech executives for up to three years and financial penalties worth up to 10% of a company's global turnover. CHINA: The state monitors Chinese social apps for politically sensitive content.

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SECOND- UPDATE-ADDITION:


Safer Internet Day 2020 – Cyber-Safe-Ireland News!


To mark Safer Internet Day 2020, we are releasing some new data collected in the 2019-20 school year, which is a “wakeup call” that must be acted on by whoever forms the Government after the election.

·        31% of children surveyed have seen or experienced something online that upset them in past year

·        19% fail to tell a parent or trusted adult when they encounter negative material

·        Young children overwhelmingly (93%) own their own smart device and 68% are active on social media, a 10% increase on last year’s figure.

Permanent TSB PARTNERSHIP

CyberSafeIreland is also delighted to announce a new partnership with Permanent TSB. CyberSafeIreland will join Pieta House and Make-A-Wish Ireland as one of the Bank’s headline charity partners. Speaking about the partnership, Permanent TSB’s Head of Corporate Affairs, Leontia Fannin said: “A fundamental element of the Bank’s Responsible Business agenda is building strong community partnerships. Over the last year, we have had the opportunity to work closely with Alex, Cliona and the CyberSafe team on a number of initiatives. We are very excited at the opportunity to build on this success and support the CybersafeIreland Team in achieving their mission to empower children, parents and teachers to navigate the online world in a stronger, smarter and safer way. She continued, ‘in the financial services industry, we recognise that the world is changing, and that technology has a fundamental role to play to improve our lives for the better. However, as a mother, I also recognise the need for managing technology and, in particular, navigating the online world in a responsible way. CybersafeIreland is playing a critical role in Irish communities. Their work will go a long way in educating parents and, ultimately, protecting our children to experience technology and navigate the online world in a safe and responsible way.”

CyberSafeIreland is a not-for-profit organisation, established in 2015, that works to empower children, parents and teachers to navigate the online world in a safe and responsible manner. Our founders have backgrounds in cybercrime investigation, law enforcement, forensic psychology, online child protection, academia and the not-for-profit sector. As parents of young children, we can see on a daily basis how technology is going to play an increasingly important part of their futures. It will be used more widely in schools and even a fairly basic mobile phone these days will allow a child the ability to take risks almost unthinkable 20 years ago. We want our children to be able to embrace the opportunities for learning and enjoyment that technology can deliver, but we recognise that as parents and educators we have a responsibility to equip them with the tools to stay safe and avoid harm.

We believe that everybody can play a role in keeping children safe online, including children themselves. Education is a key part of the solution and both schools and parents have a vital role to play in supporting children to be safe online. https://www.cybersafeireland.org/about-us/

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