Australia Broadcasting Corporation:
Concerns raised over policing of internet paedophilia
Broadcast: 21/08/2007
Reporter: Suzanne Smith
TONY JONES: Earlier this month the Prime Minister made a strong
pitch for the votes of middle Australia, with a $189 million package
to provide a free internet filters for every family.
Mr Howard's offer represents another defensive weapon for parents
and authorities in their battle with online predators.
The key to keeping ahead of these tech-savvy paedophiles is to
know their behaviour and recognise how they are using the net
to get access to children.
But there are concerns tonight that the Australian Federal Police,
who are part of a virtual global task force, are playing catch-up
when it comes to internet policing compared to overseas authorities.
The AFP will get a funding boost as part of Mr Howard's internet
initiative.
In a moment we'll talk to Jim Gamble, the UK police expert who
set up the virtual global task force. First this special report
by Lateline's Suzanne Smith.
SUZANNE SMITH: The internet is one of humanity's greatest achievements,
but it has a dark underbelly.
JULIAN SHER, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: You would never let your
child of 11 years old, or 12 years old - much less nine years
old - go out to the park at 11 o'clock at night, or 10 o'clock
at night when its dark and yet parents think of nothing letting
their younger child surf the internet alone unsupervised in the
basement, in a closed room.
SUZANNE SMITH: Julian Sher, a Canadian investigative journalist,
has just published this book: "One Child at a Time".
He says 85 per cent of US perpetrators convicted for online offences
had also molested children.
JULIAN SHER: We are talking about the rape and abuse and torture
of innocent children. So these are crimes in photos. So you are
committing a crime, you are furthering the abuse of a child just
by looking at these pictures. But even if you say, I'm just looking
at the pictures, the problem is, that is not true. It becomes
a fuel for offending.
SUZANNE SMITH: The head of Queensland's Child Exploitation Unit,
which hunts down paedophiles on the internet, agrees.
ACTING INSPECTOR JONATHAN ROUSE, TASKFORCE ARGOS: When you are
dealing with images and video - full motion video with audio attached
to it - depicting two and three year olds being violently raped,
when you can hear their voices, the screams of pain, and you can
see the offender's face in those videos - yes. I would say to
you that myself and all of my colleagues around the country on
a daily basis have seen evil, and looked it in the eye.
YOUTUBE VIDEO CAMPAIGN: Meeting a teen girl online is actually
pretty easy. You can go into any chatroom and just start talking.
Most of the girls are usually so insecure and desperate for attention.
...Attention from older guys is totally flattering.
SUZANNE SMITH: This video reveals actual conversations recorded
between paedophiles and young children in chat rooms by police.
YOUTUBE VIDEO CAMPAIGN: Meeting them is the goal. Once I get
them out of their house, well, that's when things get really interesting.
SUZANNE SMITH: The video was made by YouTube as part of a campaign
that starts next month to teach kids about the dangerous side
of the internet. Campaigns aside, the techniques of the savvy
online child predator are constantly evolving, often putting them
one step ahead of the authorities.
Police say the most immediate threat is the increasing popularity
of wireless internet, which allows abusers to use their laptops
in hard to trace public places.
ACTING INSPECTOR JONATHAN ROUSE: What that provides them with
is absolute anonymity when they're accessing the internet.
SUZANNE SMITH: Mobile phones also pose a significant advantage
to paedophile networks, because police can't track and retrieve
the transmission of live images sent between them.
There is an international policing effort to curb the use of
the internet by abusers.
The virtual global task force, which includes the Australian
Federal Police, works closely with the corporate giants of the
internet, including Microsoft. Its Child Exploitation Tracking
System, otherwise known as CETS, is funded by Bill Gates himself.
JULIAN SHER: Bill Gates gets the Canadian Microsoft team to meet
with the Toronto police. The Toronto police then call in the American
police, the Australian police, the British police. They meet with
the Microsoft technicians. They needed a data base that could
take all these pieces together, these secret passwords and names
and email addresses. And so CETS, as it became known - Child Exploitation
Tracking System - is now operating in more than half a dozen countries,
it's being rolled out around the world, in the Third World, all
through Europe, and it's already lead to the arrest of more than
60 offenders and the rescue of more than 40 children.
SUZANNE SMITH: But CETS is not operating yet in Australia. Microsoft
engineers came to Australia last year to demonstrate the system
to the AFP. Queensland police say the delay is unfortunate but
not a serious setback.
ACTING INSPECTOR JONATHAN ROUSE: I wouldn't say that it's hampering
our ability to effectively infiltrate and dismantle these child
sex offender networks but what it will do is certainly enhance
our ability to do that. And it will also enhance our ability to
do that at an international level. Certainly, on a daily basis
now, law enforcement in this country is dealing with law enforcement
officers from around the world that are fighting this crime. But
with the implementation of a program like CETS we'll be able to
do that from our desktops with a web interface.
SUZANNE SMITH: But the AFP promises the tracking system will
be operating soon. And denies it is taking too long to set up.
KEVIN ZUCCATO, AFP HIGH TECH CRIME UNIT: The reason for the delay
in relation to getting CETS up and running is predominantly due
to the creation by the Australian High Tech Crimes Centre of the
infrastructure needed to support it. The Australian High Tech
Crimes and (inaudible) and fully committed to the utilisation
of CETS.
SUZANNE SMITH: Australia is also behind in another area of internet
policing. When an online abuser is arrested and his computer seized,
it triggers a worldwide response. The photos of his victims are
crossmatched with data on police computers around the world. But
in Australia we are yet to create a national image data base that
combines all state and federal police data.
The need for a national image data base in Australia became obvious
in 2004 when a US police operation code-named 'Falcon' sent the
AFP the names of 700 Australians who were suspected of downloading
child pornography. Author Julian Sher claims that the majority
of these suspects were never properly investigated by Australian
police, due in part to the volume of material and legislative
impediments which delayed access to search warrants.
ACTING INSPECTOR JONATHAN ROUSE: In Operation Falcon, eight children
in Queensland were rescued and identified as having been sexually
abused. Across the rest of the country, I'm only aware of one
other child, and that was in Western Australia, that was rescued
in that operation. Now that for me that is a clear indicator that
we failed quite badly in that operation and we need to be smarter
about the way we do business.
KEVIN ZUCCATO: My understanding in relation to the names that
were provided, the details that were provided to the Australia
High Tech Crime Centre is that every individual who could be identified,
the information was disseminated to the states and territories
for follow-up action.
SUZANNE SMITH: The AFP denies that the absence of a national
image data base in Australia hinders the global policing of child
abuse.
KEVIN ZUCCATO: We all have our own data bases where we collect
and place the images into. but for a, it's very complicated to
get all of those data bases put into the one data base, if you
will. But work on that is continuing, and we are committed to
a national data base.
ACTING INSPECTOR JONATHAN ROUSE: What you have to remember with
the role of the AFP in this crime is that they are new to it.
They only came in to this crime type in 2005. Yes, OK, the AFP
are playing catch-up but they are catching up very rapidly.
SUZANNE SMITH: Australian and UK police say the best weapon against
predators is informed parents and children, and the setting up
of this abuse button in the UK, available on the virtual global
task force website, is helping to stop abuse at it's source -
the internet.
JULIAN SHER: You click that button, you will be forwarded right
away to a police officer who can take your information, who can
gather the information, and if necessary proceed with an investigation
and arrest somebody.
SUZANNE SMITH: The same abuse button exists on the Australian
Federal Police website, with direct access to an AFP officer.
Just one more tool to empower kids to say no.
http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200708/r170339_638826.asx
rtsp://media1.abc.net.au/reallibrary/lateline/200708/20070821-late-porn_16_9_bband.rm
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2007/s2011385.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2007/s2011385.htm
