MORE than one in five children entering Internet chatrooms in the UK are approached by paedophiles, the House Crime Committee heard yesterday, as deputies were told there had been 18 separate child pornography cases in Cyprus so far this year.
The House Crime Committee yesterday began discussion of the worrying growth of the phenomenon in Cyprus and called experts from the police and the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CyTA) to explain the extent of the problem and what was being done about it.
The head of CyTA’s Information Services Michalis Achilleos said the issue was a growing headache for parents.
“According to data provided by the British police, in the UK, 20 per cent of children entering internet chatrooms are approached by paedophiles,” he said.
“There are hundreds of thousands of images featuring child pornography on the web. Tens of billions of dollars are gained every year from this business.”
He added that on average, 300 hundred new websites were created internationally every day, promoting the sexual exploitation of minors.
Officer Costas Kerimis of Nicosia Police Headquarters told deputies there had been a rise in such crimes since 2005, when there were 16 cases throughout the whole year.
But he stressed that all the cases so far involved material obtained from abroad and did not concern local children.
Kerimis said police were preparing a special child pornography unit to tackle the issue.
“We have started training officers to prepare a special unit that will deal with matters involving child pornography and exploitation,” Kerimis said. “Two officers will be sent abroad for six months to train specifically on child pornography and we have also invited a specialist team from abroad to come to Cyprus for a week and educate the force on such matters.”
As one of the key authorities to deal with cyber crime, CyTA has taken a number of steps to help parents protect their children from such sites, said Achilleos. These include sending out leaflets and organising seminars for parents and children. Next month, the Authority will be providing the public with a special filter which parents can use to sensor any sites or categories they wish to protect their children from.
“The only way to face this problem is for all of society to work together. We suggest that a special unit be created, with the participation of everybody – parents, police, teachers, Parliament, government, Attorney-general – and a common strategy is created, which will eliminate this problem.”
The Law for Electronic Crime came into force in Cyprus on May 1, 2005.
It deals with various crimes committed over the Internet, from terrorism to gambling, drug and human trafficking, and distribution of child pornography.
Since the law came into force, Kerimis said there had been no major problems in enforcing it, apart from difficulties that arose due to the law on the protection of personal data.
The law, covered by Chapter 17 of the Cyprus Constitution, has been an issue of heated debate over recent months, with opposition DISY backing an amendment which would give authorities the right to access personal data and use it as evidence in court. Cyprus has also come under pressure from the European Union over the issue.
But with the disagreement of AKEL and DIKO and EDEK wavering, the matter is still pending in the House Legal Affairs Committee.
The Committee will continue discussion on the matter next week.
Attorney-general snubs meeting
THE HOUSE Crime Committee yesterday kicked off with the noted absence of Attorney-general Petros Klerides, who had been invited to attend.
“In our last meeting, we decided that due to the nature of our subject, the Attorney-general, or his spokesperson, should attend,” said the Committee Chairman, Costas Papacostas of AKEL. “But he contacted me and said we should go ahead with the meeting without him, and if we had any questions, we should send them to him afterwards.
“I think this shows contempt,” he said, before kicking off discussions.
