EU TIGHTENS CHILD PORN LAWS

By Arwen van Grafhorst

Radio Netherlands, Netherlands: 26 October 2007
http://www.radionetherlands.nl/currentaffairs/071025-child-sex-abuse

Europe wants to clamp down on child sex abuse. Looking at child
pornography online - even without downloading it - is to become a
criminal offence in the EU, as is "grooming", gaining a child's trust
online with the aim of meeting for sexual contact. But are the
agreements workable in practice?

It's every parent's nightmare. An adult pretends to be a child in an
internet chatroom, makes contact with real children by chatting in
"kids' language", then persuades them to meet up with the aim of
sexually abusing them. There are no hard figures available on this
phenomenon, known as "grooming", but in the Netherlands the number of
reports to the child pornography hotline grows every year.

On Thursday, European Union justice ministers made binding agreements
to tackle grooming more effectively. From next year it will be
possible to prosecute "groomers" just for making a date with a
juvenile or preparing to do so.

==== Law widened ====

Deliberately viewing child pornography is also to become a criminal
offence. Up to now a person could only be convicted for downloading
pornographic images of children, so they had them on a hard disk or
DVD. But it's now technically possible to view images without
downloading them. Dutch Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin said this
will mean the law in the Netherlands will need to be widened.

"Possession of child pornography has been a criminal offence for years
in the Netherlands, which also goes for child pornography saved to
your hard disk via internet. But what it doesn't cover is accessing
child pornography without downloading it."

==== Credit card ====

It will have to be clear that a person has deliberately viewed the
pictures or videos and hasn't opened them by accident, perhaps by
clicking on the wrong link. Police will check that child pornography
has been paid for, for example on the basis of credit card data.
"There mustn't be any arguments about whether someone has accessed a
site, but they made a mistake with the address. This is why I want a
bill that makes it a criminal offence to make payments to access these
sites," said Mr Hirsch Ballin.

==== Reservations ====

ECPAT Netherlands, the Dutch branch of an international organisation
which campaigns against child exploitation, is pleased that there is
now a European agreement to clamp down on child pornography, but has
some reservations about its implementation.

ECPAT spokesman Theo Noten says the rules are clear, but each member
state can decide how it will put them into practice. "There could have
been better supervision of the implementation of the agreement," said
Mr Noten, adding that he thinks countries that already have experience
with the matter should help others with legislation, detection and
prosecution, and also with providing help to victims.

==== Lack of capacity ====

Mr Noten predicts that compliance with the terms of the agreement also
won't be straightforward in the Netherlands. "The police have already
indicated they have too little manpower to combat child pornography
effectively. Now grooming is to be followed more closely, there will
be an even greater lack of capacity.

Mr Hirsch Ballin will translate the Council of Europe treaty into a
bill which will be brought before parliament next year.