Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary:
The Internet, as well as all future
forms of electronic, global
dissemination of information and
knowledge are indisputably powerful
media, instantaneous and' interactive.
They offer the means for education,
culture and self-improvement. They can
uplift individuals, they can empower
whole societies, they can become hubs
of business and profitable human
enterprise.
The Internet, as well as all future forms of electronic, global
dissemination of information and knowledge are indisputably powerful
media, instantaneous and' interactive. They offer the means for
education, culture and self-improvement. They can uplift individuals,
they can empower whole societies, they can become hubs of business
and profitable human enterprise.
Like any other communication technology, the Internet is only a
means, a carrier. Despite its creative advantages, the Internet can
also wreak havoc on the lives of our young children. It can expose
them to illegal images of child pornography, it can provide the
entire transactional basis for lucrative traffic in pornography.
Repeated and relentless exposure to paedophile writings, essays and
images could mislead children and the general public into thinking
that there is nothing wrong with free sex for children of any age,
that there is nothing illegal or harmful with the sexual abuse of
children or in displaying such acts through pornography or paedophile
websites on the Internet. Many paedophile sites aim precisely at
proving that their deviant behaviour is 'normal' or 'acceptable' by
the very fact that they and their writings are openly and prominently
displayed on the Internet.
The convening of the UNESCO expert's meeting on the Sexual Abuse of
Children,Child Pornography and Paedophilia on the Internet was
occasioned by reports on Operation Cathedral. This police operation
led by Interpol and simultaneously launched in six countries on the
night of 2 September 1998 demonstrated how widely spread paedophile
networks were and gave an estimation of their traffic in illegal
images, one source holding 48 gigabytes, another over half a million
illegal images. A non-governmental organization in the USA claims
there are at least 21,000 paedophile sites accessible under various
names, some of them innocent and even attractive, like 'free spirits'
or 'boy lovers.' But even one paedophile site is enough to corrupt
children. Despite the driving factor of consumerism, the Internet
should not become a means of 'consuming' children.
In calling the Expert's Meeting on 18-19 January 1999 at its
Headquarters in Paris, UNESCO sought to provide the venue for an
overall assessment of what has been achieved by UN specialized
agencies, governmental and non-governmental organizations~
foundations, police and judiciary forces, psychologists and the
media. It was deemed necessary to appreciate the role and
contribution of all actors in the fight against child pornography and
paedophilia on the Internet: the communication industry, schools, the
family and parliaments. Participants sought to enlist the resources
that could be counted on and to describe the work that still needed
expertise and financing. Stock was taken of using any audiovisual
support. Law enfor
information provided in existing reportsand websites maintained by
groups defending children's rights, and of the achievements already
made by NGOs since the 1996 Stockholm World Conference on the
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and the 1997 Experts
meeting on Child Pornography on the Internet in Lyons.
It was gratifying to note how the International Labour Organization
and the World Tourism Organization, The European Commission and the
Council of Europe in cooperation with several NGOs had all been
struggling to protect children from sex-trafficking and sale, from
various forms of prostitution and sex tourism, and from the
production of pornographic material; several have also been working
towards strengthening existing international instruments in this
domain, in particular the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and
the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. But, it was
clearly confirmed, making the Internet safe for children was not a
question of censorship.
The fact that crimes committed on the Internet are not restricted by
national borders makes many national and conventional laws on child
abuse and child pornography either weak or obsolete. Most national
legislation on child pornography is based mainly if not exclusively
on print as the medium, with an actual child as a model. Most laws
have not yet dealt with digitally generated images, morphing, and the
mere possession of illegal pornographic materials cement often is
also handicapped, as few judiciary and police services throughout the
world are technically as well equipped as the pornographers and
cybercriminals.
Nor has there been sufficient focus on and resources for improving
the social context in which these crimes occur: exclusion, social
injustice, poverty and a lack of respect and inadequate protection
for the child's rights. It is perhaps necessary to broaden ones
vision and seek solutions based not on a culture of imposition, force
and the superfluous, but on a culture of peace, respect for human
rights, democracy and ethical behaviour. To conquer the macroproblems
of poverty and exclusion, conditions under which the sexual
exploitation of children in any form thrives, major political
decisions must be taken at the highest governmental levels and the
proportionate level of financing must be allocated. Charity and
humanitarian measures alone will not solve these problems. New
resources must be imagined, new levels of energy must be released.
The Experts' meeting drew attention to the growth and complexity of
the problems of sexual abuse of children, child pornography and
paedophilia on the Internet and the need of a global offensive on all
fronts - civil society, legal experts and industry. As a new
watershed has been reached in this battle, it is realized that we all
now need transnational tools and a more articulated flow-across and
flow-down international co-operation; we need to ensure cross-border
agreements for extradition and extra- territoriality; co-operation in
enforcing laws has to be more effective; key research and
particularly quantification and qualification of the problems has to
be shared and made easily accessible by the public; children, but
also parents and teachers, need to have access to helplines and
hotlines. Self-regulation by Internet service providers needs more
muscle.
The plight of the paedophile himself was raised by the UN Special
Rapporteur and a few NGOs and individuals, for as long as paedophilia
itself is not resolved, the sexual abuse of children and child
pornography will not end. While this issue was not discussed in
depth, it is perhaps worth raising in a future colloquium.
The main concern of UNESCO are the young children of today. Children
who are at the very crossroads of life where education and culture,
tolerance and peace should beckon them to create their place in
society, and not let them succumb to the traffic of prostitution and
other forms of sexual abuse. These are the children who should be in
the schools that UNESCO and its Member States seek to assist and for
which the Organization seeks to provide the latest resources and
techniques in education, science and culture. The minds of children
are the seeding grounds for the peace of the next generation. Who
destroys children, destroys the future of society.
While seeking to protect children from the dangers of the Internet,
it is also important to distinguish and punish the real criminals,
and not destroy the tools, the new communication and information
technologies, thecreative environment which offers the means of
transferring culture and education, as well as, unfortunately, child
pornography and paedophiia UNESCO has an ethical mandate to promote
the free flow of ideas by word and image, a wider and better-balanced
dissemina tion of information at international as well as national
levels without any obstacle to the freedom of expression. The only
way to cure the ills of freedom is to ensure more freedom, and the
only way to cure the ills of democracy is to have more democracy.
This report is the output of the more than 400 experts and
specialists who participated in this meeting. It reflects the
experiences and reflections of child protection advocates and
specialists, some of whom have been dedicated to this work for over
three decades. The overall achievement of this meeting is a
Declaration and an Action Plan put forth by the participants in
separate workshops and formulated into an ensemble by the Rapporteur.
While many of the actions are addressed to UNESCO, the Action Plan
proposes that all actors must take these vital steps together.
During the two day meeting, many spoke of the chains of silence
surrounding the subject of sexual abuse of children, the silence of
children, the silence of the perpetrators, the silence of the courts
and of justice, the silence of psychologists and psychiatric
counsellors. The Report of this meeting and the dissemination of its
Declaration and Action Plan are seen as a first way of breaking these
chains of silence.