Child porn cases only the tip of the iceberg

AT LEAST half of the incidents of online child pornography are not reported due to how close-knit Cypriot society is, according to Cyber Crime Unit investigator George Karkas.

“We live in a very closed society still where people feel ashamed to report certain things,” said Karkas, speaking at a safer internet training course on Thursday.

In 2011 alone around 24 people were found in possession of child pornographic material, compared to 9 cases in 2010. 

Another categorisation made by the Unit is the number of people ‘invited into child pornography’ which involves cases where children – under the age of 18 – were coerced into taking their clothes off in front of a web cam.

In 2011 there was only one such case, however in 2010 there were six.

“We have a lot of cases and it’s probably double that as half of them are not reported,” said Karkas.

According to Karkas, the law in Cyprus provides that those in possession of child pornography can get up to 10 years imprisonment and in cases where abuse has taken place too, the sentence can increase to 20 years. Despite this, the heftiest sentence dished out for possession of child pornographic material was four years.

Quizzed as to whether the Unit works by monitoring child pornography downloads or by complaints, Karkas said that they are able to monitor them but it is mainly through complaints.

Karkas also explained the ease at which any person that uses a downloading programme to download songs and movies could be at risk of helping a child pornographer get hold of material. 

“If you don’t know and you have as your default setting a shared folder when you download anything it will come from various sources,” said Karkas, adding that you may download child pornographic material without realising.

“By doing so you give the child pornographer a chance to take the information from your folder,” he added.

The course tackled other issues of the cyber world such as fraudulent websites. Karkas said that the way to determine whether a website is a scam is to simply type the address into google, hit the space button and then type scam or fraud.

Complaints about child pornography or racism online can be directed to CyberEthics on 22 674747, their website on www.cyberethics.info or by email on [email protected] 

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.