CLAMPING down on internet child pornography is not easy thanks to legal weaknesses and loopholes, the House Crime Committee discovered yesterday.
“This is not a new issue,” Committee Chairman Stavros Evagorou said.
“[Child pornography] is a scourge in our homes.”
But the problem is not unique to Cyprus, a global phenomenon due to the nature of the internet. With an annual turnover of €30 billion, internet child pornography was the world’s second most lucrative illegal activity after drug trafficking, he said.
Furthermore internet users were insufficiently informed of the problem, which was where the media had a particularly important role to play in making it known, said Evagorou.
The Committee devoted its weekly meeting to the problem of spreading child pornography over the internet in the presences of representatives from the police’s Bureau of Investigation of Financial and Internet Crimes.
DISY deputy Ionas Nicolaou said: “Although suggestions have been made from all sides, it was determined that nothing had been done to deal with the problem either through reinforcing the legal framework or by taking other measures… These oversights diminish expectations to deal with the problem.”
Nicolaou, who said steps had not been made to take advantage of available European programmes such as the EU’s €43 million Safer Internet Programme, said the penalties offenders faced were “insignificant” compared to the crime itself.
In order effectively to combat the phenomenon, bank transactions with websites related to child pornography would have to be terminated, he said. Technology blocking access to illegal websites should also be developed and Europol and Interpol information regarding traders of child sex abuse images should be made known, he added.
DISY deputy Stella Kyriakidou also characterised penalties as “unacceptably small” and criticised huge delays in trying cases.
“We recently had cases that have disturbed Cypriot society,” police representative Yiannakis Charalambous said.
The officer added that the majority of perpetrators were family men. He said if someone was suspected of being involved in internet child porn then the entire family was placed under surveillance, including the children, so as to protect them from potential abuse.
Charalambous said the police co-operated fully with Interpol with good results.
He added that by law offenders faced 10 years in jail and/or a fine.
“Why stricter penalties are not imposed is a court matter,” he said.
Police Cyber Crime Bureau officer Markos Nikolettis said the increase in child porn was proportionate to the increase in internet users.
He said the bureau had plans to improve its operation but that compared to other EU countries it was at an advanced stage. He said a special programme, Cyberethics, was in the process of being set up with private companies which would allow people to contact private companies to file child pornography complaints.
Already, Interpol’s archive had more than 560,000 child porn photographs “based on which 516 children have been recognised and saved”, he said.
Referring to Interpol’s latest ‘Koala’ operation, he said 23 children aged nine to 16 had been identified and the majority of adults involved in the case had been employed in positions of trust such as teachers or coaches.
Nikolettis said although a number of EU directives had been adopted, there were a number of recommendations that had not.
He also said police and the Education Ministry had to co-ordinate regarding informing children about the dangers of internet use and how school awareness campaigns were already under way.
The Committee decided to readdress the issue at its next meeting.
