CONTENTS
With the introduction of every new form of media, questions and concerns arise. At one time the introduction of writing changed the way humans thought about themselves and their world.(1) The introduction of the telegraph released communication from its physical limitations - a message could be telegraphed faster than a person, horse, or train could travel.(2) Some said that the introduction of radio would kill books; others predicted that the introduction of television would destroy radio. The computer, however, was originally seen as an insignificant development:
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
(Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943.)"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
(Ken Olson, President, Chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.)
Despite these early predictions, computers have been the biggest leap in communications media since the invention of television. Along with the computer has come the Internet and some would argue that the Internet is going to have more rapid and far wider implications for our world than anything that has come before.
One aspect of the Internet that many individuals, organizations and governments are grappling to cope with is its use in the victimization of children.
How can communities, governments, child welfare advocates, law enforcement groups, educators and parents ensure that the Internet is accessible for children, and safe at the same time?
Some of the prevailing discourse about online sexual exploitation has been polarized into a dialogue between "freedom of expression" arguments versus regulation and law enforcement concerns. It is not the aim of this paper to try to resolve the resulting standoff that seems to have stymied energy that might be directed towards more productive discussions. Instead, this report will attempt to summarize the existing international, national and global attempts to minimize the victimization of children online, and thereby inform current policy makers about the existing situation.
First we will examine the background and online activities of concern, then the relevant international treaties and covenants as they pertain to the sexual exploitation of youth and children. An overview of relevant Canadian legislation will be offered then the legalities, policies, and a summary of global academic research and perspectives.
It should be noted here that this collection of relevant legislation has a variety of aims. Some of it aims to protect children, some of it is designed to assist law enforcement, some is designed to raise public awareness, some is concerned with basic civil rights, and some try to find solutions within the Internet industry. This collection of laws, conventions, and policy has not as yet been cohesively coordinated. The laws lack consistent statements of purpose and application throughout the international, national and local levels. This reflects one of the main challenges of approaching the issue of child victimization on the Internet, namely the many interests and perspectives at work.
Prioritizing the best interests of children, and approaching the issue from a children's rights perspective, can resolve this dilemma. If policy makers consistently choose the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as a philosophical starting point, then this will ensure that the discourse will be centered in an existing internationally ratified set of principles that specifically addresses child exploitation.
The use of the Internet in 57% of Canadian homes in 2000 (up from 31% in 1997), and the projections for continued
growth,(3)
means that we once again find ourselves on the cusp of the integrating of a new medium into our culture and our homes. Just as policy makers in the
1940's(4) had to
decide how television would be used, families, communities, provinces, countries and international agencies now need to examine the use of the Internet and decide how it will be produced, regulated, and implemented. Current policies need to be updated in order to address this ever widening, never before imagined range of issues. For example:
The Internet offers many ways that information can be exchanged. It is multi-layered and made up of both private and public venues, commercial and personal websites, newsgroups, chat services, and bulletin boards.
Communications over the Internet can be accomplished through e-mail, instant messaging, video conferencing, and audio transmissions - all offering ways to send and receive messages, images, and files.
Online activities that victimize children are limited only by the technology available, and that technology is experiencing a growth that does not appear to be slowing. The scope of the issue is large, however we can pinpoint specific activities conducted over the Internet that potentially victimize children.
In Internet settings, pedophiles are able to contact potential victims then attempt to lure the victims into physical meetings, making them vulnerable to sexual assaults or even abductions into the sex trade.
In chat rooms, children can be exposed to pornographic images, having the effect of "normalizing" these images. This desensitizing is used by pedophiles to encourage children to engage in progressively more sexual conversations and activities.
The Internet offers pedophiles an avenue of distribution for pornography that is perfect for the covert nature of their activities. On the Internet, pedophiles can exchange pornographic images of children cheaply, safely, and in unlimited volume. There are reports of individuals amassing enormous databases of child pornography. This has created a worldwide market for pornography that in turn fuels more victimization of children. Additionally, pornographers using computer software can take an innocent image of a child and "morph," or alter it, to make the child's image as either nude or engaged in explicit sexual activity. It is virtually impossible to determine whether or not an image is real or has been morphed. Pedophiles can use actual or morphed images of children as tools in many ways: to lower children's inhibition; to sexually stimulate the child or themselves; to demonstrate the sexual acts desired with the child; or to blackmail the child into engaging in sexual activity.
With the introduction and common use of the Internet, individuals who have previously been a deviant minority within a community are able to create virtual communities with other like-minded predators. These online communities reinforce and validate pedophilic values or beliefs and distribute technical information about how to engage in sexually exploitive activities. These venues also publicize locations, activities, practices, and ideas that enhance both the practice of exploitation and encourage their normalization. Examples include online maps of "kiddie strolls" in distant cities that identify areas where children are available. Some offer information on methods of encrypting or digitally securing information on computers that stop law enforcement evidence gathering, should the pedophile be arrested or their computer searched.
The Internet allows pedophiles to share information, identities, and images of their victims, enabling this activity to gain a certain status, trust, and acceptance that has developed into a kind of psychological support system for other pedophiles worldwide. In the past several years law enforcement agencies around the world have been investigating organized groups of pedophiles that engage in trading thousands of images of child pornography. Three examples of these organized groups are Pedo University, the Wonderland Club, and the Orchid Club.
There are documented reports of sexual assaults being broadcast live to pre-selected viewers who e-mail the perpetrator with suggestions on how to conduct the assault. This represents a completely new avenue of abuse that existing policies and laws are as yet unable to deal with.
Attempts to cope with the changing risks to our youth have taken a variety of forms. Groups based internationally and nationally, in government, academia and industry have all had preliminary responses to the issue of online sexual exploitation.
Conventions, treaties and covenants relevant to sexual exploitation include the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was introduced in December of 1989 at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly. This treaty is a statement of international priorities and expectations that are designed to ensure universal rights for children. The CRC was unanimously adopted by the UN General Assembly and quickly became the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history, with Canada as one of the original signatories. The CRC is the primary tool to address the active protection of children's rights and is built upon four guiding principles: non-discrimination; best interests of the child; rights to survival; and development and participation.
The primary principle of the CRC is known as "first call for children." This principle states that the essential needs of children should be a high priority when international, national, community and familial resources are allocated. Within this principle is the direct implication that children are full citizens of their countries and are entitled to consideration by governments, and that governments are obligated to prioritize children's needs when making decisions about national resource allocations and agendas.
The Convention outlines several areas where children are deserving of special protection befitting their state of development and level of vulnerability. Sexual exploitation is one such area. Articles of the Convention that specifically pertain to sexual exploitation of children are Articles 19, 32, 34, 35, and 39.
These articles set out the following States Parties' obligations:
The Optional Protocol to
the Convention on the Rights of the Child
In an attempt to expand and enhance the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Optional Protocol to the CRC was drafted in May of 2000. The Optional Protocol specifically addresses areas of concern identified around the Internet. The Protocol calls attention to the "growing availability of child pornography on the Internet and other evolving technologies," and supports a call for the "worldwide criminalization of the production, distribution, exportation, transmission, importation, intentional possession and advertising of child pornography." The Protocol also stresses the need for closer cooperation between governments and the Internet industry.
The Protocol supports the use of a holistic approach to the causes of child sexual exploitation and stresses the need for public awareness in order to reduce the demand for children for exploitation purposes.(5)
Other organizations concerned with children's rights internationally include UNICEF, Interpol, and the Interpol Standing Working Party for Offenses against Minors.
The United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF), addresses the issue of sexual exploitation as global in nature and pervasive in its scope in its Staff Working Papers:
The nature of the sexual abuse and exploitation of children is complex - ranging from intra-familial to commercial sexual exploitation. There is a clear international dimension to the area of sexual exploitation of children that makes international cooperation absolutely indispensable. The sexual exploitation of children knows no boundaries of a geographical, cultural or social nature. All too often, it is a hidden and clandestine phenomenon, highly organized, extremely profitable and so far carrying low risks, particularly of prosecution and punishment for those who profit from the exploitation of children.(6)
With this in mind, the role of Interpol as an international law enforcement and coordination body also has relevance to this area.
The International Criminal Police Organization, known as Interpol, is an international co-operative body of law enforcement authorities that focus on law enforcement actions, prevention, training and other collaborative efforts in dealing with international crime. Interpol's primary function is to facilitate communication and to support a continuing exchange of information. It is the second largest international organization in the world with 177 member states. At the 1992 General Assembly, the United Nations adopted a resolution that included recommendations about actions concerning offenses against minors. The Interpol Standing Working Party on Offenses against Minors was created to address these concerns. Today this working party has participants from approximately 30 states.
Interpol Standing Working Party
for Offenses against Minors
The Standing Working Party's mandate, as set forth by the UN General Assembly, is to combat sexual crimes against minors such as commercial sexual exploitation. National Criminal Boards from member nations are asked to nominate at least one specialized liaison officer within their country to act as a contact point for the Working Party for semi-annual meetings. The primary themes addressed at these conferences are sexual exploitation of children, child pornography, sexual tourism, illegal adoption and the trafficking of children.(7)
Since 1992, the Interpol Standing Working Party has published a handbook containing guidelines on handling crimes against minors. The handbook also includes a comparative list of international child pornography legislation.(8) This compilation shows there is a distinct lack of adequate legislation in a number of countries.(9)
The increased use of information technology in offenses against children has meant greater law enforcement activity in this arena. The Standing Working Party has facilitated the development of international training courses for law enforcement officers regarding computer-assisted crimes. Efforts are made to ensure that all member countries have access to the latest information and technology to assist them in fighting crimes against children that involve the Internet.(10)
There are many diverse governing bodies, relevant legislation, and pro-active organizations in Canada that are attempting to deal with issues involving sexual exploitation of children and the Internet. This is an overview of these activities, beginning with relevant Canadian legislation, contained primarily within the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Criminal Code of Canada.
Provincially, British Columbia has no legislation that specifically addresses the issue of the Internet and sexual exploitation. Representatives from the Provincial Government have assisted in consultation processes with advisory groups examining the issue and have internal policies for Internet usage for government employees. On local levels, some schools and libraries have Internet usage policies, but most are locally designed and implemented.
Canadian Charter of
Rights and Freedoms
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees "Freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression including freedom of the press, and other media of communication." Recently this Charter right has taken on significance because of the Supreme Court challenge launched by John Robin Sharpe. The Sharpe case was based on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and Sharpe's right to possess and produce child pornography based on those rights. The Supreme Court ruled in January 2001 that this Charter right did not allow for the distribution of child pornography. The production of child pornography was also ruled illegal except for personal use and as long as no criminal activities were depicted. That Charter rights allow for pedophiles to engage in abusive activities undermines the usefulness of the Charter to protect children. The implications of the Sharpe ruling have yet to be realized throughout the legal and social justice systems and it is expected that the Sharpe ruling will continue to be a contentious one.
Under the Criminal Code of Canada, Sections relevant to sexual exploitation include:
In March of 2001, Justice Minister Anne McLellan introduced a Bill that contains recommendations for amendments to the Criminal Code of Canada. This Bill, Omnibus Bill C-15, will attempt to better protect children from sexual exploitation in the following ways:
Canadian Radio and
Television Commission
The Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) has, until recently, been in charge of regulating the broadcast of information within Canada. Discussions about the appropriateness of the CRTC regulating the Internet, which is and is not technically a broadcast medium, has revealed that this regulatory body is not prepared to make rulings regarding the Internet.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Missing Children's Registry, Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, as well as investigators from municipal police forces across the country, work with the Interpol Specialist Group on Crimes Against Children. This group, with members from thirty countries, meets semi-annually to discuss investigations of child pornography, smuggling, and abduction.
G-8 is an international group which represents eight world superpowers and sponsors two groups: the G-8 Expert Group on Trans-national Organized Crime, and the G-8 Lyon Sub-Group on High Technology Crime. Members of the RCMP, the Solicitor General of Canada, the Canadian Department of Justice, Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, the Organized Crime Agency of BC and the Vancouver Police Department, all represent Canada at these meetings. The two G-8 groups examine how international law enforcement agencies work together regarding Internet investigations.(11)
In British Columbia, the Organized Crime Agency of BC and the Vancouver Police Department have taken lead roles in developing expertise in the investigation of Internet luring and child pornography offenses. Members of the Organized Crime Agency liaise with Interpol and receive information from the federal government agencies involved.
Although the Internet is a relatively new medium, the Canadian government has been actively investigating illegal and offensive content for some time. The most recent publication from Ottawa is Illegal and Offensive Content on the Internet: The Canadian Strategy to Promote Safe, Wise, and Responsible Internet Use. This report was created in consultation with representatives from Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, Canada Heritage, Criminal Intelligence Service Canada, the Department of Justice, Health Canada, Human Resources Development Canada, Industry Canada, the National Crime Prevention Centre, the RCMP, and the Solicitor General of Canada.
Illegal and Offensive Content on the Internet outlines Canada's progress to date in encouraging a progressive development of Internet usage within schools and community settings. The report states that as of March 30, 1999 Canada became the first country in the world to connect 100% of its schools and public libraries to the Internet, compared to 0% in 1994. The report also makes a sharp differentiation between illegal and offensive content. The report defines "offensive" content as that which is legal and may include sexually explicit material, graphic violence or pictures of corpses. It further stipulates that the control of illegal material is the realm of law enforcement, while control of offensive material is in the realm of public policy. It recommends that public policy embrace approaches such as "empowering users, educating consumers to make informed choices, and establishing responsible industry practices."(12)
The federal government's approach to the issue is summarized in the report as intending to:
The Media Awareness Network (MNet) is a non-government, non-profit Canadian organization that supports media education in Canadian homes, schools, and communities. MNet's Web Awareness is an Internet education program, endorsed and funded by many participants in the Internet industry.
Environics Research Group conducted Media Awareness Network's survey titled Canada's Children in a Wired World: The Parents' View, in March 2000. Environics polled 1,080 randomly selected Canadian families who owned a home computer and had children between the ages of 6 and 16.(13) This report illustrates some of the discrepancies between what parents believe their children are doing online and what children actually report they are doing. Evidence within this report indicates that parents are not always aware of what children are doing. "For example, focus groups carried out in August 2000 suggest that some children are carrying out activities on the Internet - sometimes of a risky nature - of which their parents are unaware."(14)
Some other bodies that attempt to educate and empower users of the Internet include:
Canadian Association of
Internet Providers
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) provide the interface between users and the Internet. Cooperation between ISPs and law enforcement becomes critical when attempting to track down predators.(15)
The Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP) represents 80% of Internet provision in Canada and has developed Voluntary Codes of Conduct for its members. These Codes set out provisions for resolving complaints as well as stipulating expectations about how ISPs cooperate with law enforcement, both nationally and internationally.
CAIP and Industry Canada have undertaken a Fair Practices Initiative that will expand the scope of the Codes and educate CAIP members about how to put self-regulatory measures into day-to-day practice. The Initiative Group is also investigating how to make fair practices mandatory and enforceable.
Industry Canada has also released a study titled, Content Filtering Technologies and Internet Service Providers: Enabling User Choice, that looks at technologies that ISPs can put in place and users can access, such as child-friendly search engines and Websites, ISP-based filtering services, and Web content labeling systems. Another report, commissioned by Industry Canada, found the Internet not to be conducive to traditional forms of content controls like other broadcast media. The global nature of the Internet would make attempts to control the content on it expensive, ineffective, easily circumvented, and detrimental to the performance of the network. The study concludes that self-regulation by the industry represents the most feasible approach to dealing with inappropriate Internet content.(16)
The Canadian Library
Association
The Canadian Library Association (CLA) has historically been very concerned with protecting the free flow of information, and with libraries offering points of entry onto the Internet, some concerns have arisen. Net Safe; Net Smart - Managing & Communicating About the Internet in the Library is a publication by the CLA that examines ethical and legal issues surrounding the use of the Internet. This publication furthers the aim of the CLA to "play a public leadership role, within the Associations' agreed principles on the issues related to the provision of Internet services in public libraries."(17) These principles include the blanket acceptance of the following documents as part of their codes of conduct; the Criminal Code of Canada, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), and the UN Conventions on the Rights of the Child.(18)
The issue of Internet access in libraries is complex. Opportunities for individuals to misuse this public service are many and varied and there are instances of library computers being used for criminal activities such as harassment and luring. Concerns about children's access to pornographic material in library settings as well as how to protect librarians from being exposed to offensive material (and therefore being sexually harassed in their workplace), are far from resolved.
Online Victimization:
A Report on the Nation's Youth
This report, published by the US-based organization, Crimes Against Children Research Center,(19) surveyed 1,501 youth between the ages of 10-17. Youth were interviewed by phone with the permission of their parents and the study provided the results regarding the online victimization of children. When asked about their experiences with Internet sexual solicitation, harassment and exposure to unwanted sexual material, the youth provided the following responses:
International
Association of Prosecutors
The International Association of Prosecutors published a report summarizing 14 recommendations on how best to support law enforcement efforts to curb child sexual exploitation on the Internet. The primary concern expressed by the report was the need for international cooperation between law enforcement agencies. Recommendations presented include: the need for consistent definitions of "pornography"; the need for ISPs to cooperate and proactively support the prosecution of individuals who break the law; and the need for cooperation between ISPs, law enforcement bodies, and international groups.
There exist very few prosecutors trained or designated specifically to address the issue of online victimization of children. Individual prosecutors are reluctant to take on cases due to the necessity of viewing large volumes of child pornography during the course of preparing a prosecution case. The effects of viewing this kind of material are often vicariously traumatic and have long-lasting impacts on individual prosecutor's emotional lives.
IPSOS-Reid Report on
Internet Usage
Released in March of 2000, the IPSOS-Reid Report on Internet Usage(21) is a comprehensive report based on a total of 28,374 interviews in 30 countries. It is the most exhaustive database ever collected on the use and emergence of the Internet internationally. Of particular importance with regard to the sexual exploitation of children is the finding that of Canadian children who regularly use the Internet, 23% have had face-to-face meetings with people they met online.
The Copine Project - The
Nature and Dimensions of Child Pornography on
the Internet
The Copine Project(22) report is a review of the nature and dimensions of child pornography on the Internet. This report looks at relevant features of the Internet and includes a brief consideration of child pornography and adult sexual interest in children. It is a helpful document when attempting to understand the nature and context in which child pornography has developed.
This paper is an attempt to provide information for the process of policy development at a community level on child pornography. International and national legislation will remain far-off ideals unless communities specifically examine and utilize the content of these documents and implement them at a grass-roots level. The aims of protecting children and providing for their healthy development must be translated to relevant and usable principles that can inform people about how to cope and respond on a daily basis. It is hoped that the information in this report will assist community-level professionals to make positive, well-informed choices about how the Internet will be used in places that children frequent.
Any process of development is best initiated on a solid foundation of current and relevant information. The Internet is a new medium that is here to stay. Only by consciously examining the medium, the risks, and by considering suggestions on how to minimize these risks, can communities make the most of the amazing leap in communication the Internet promises. Many of the documents summarized here are of a global nature because the Internet is a medium without geographical borders. If the global nature of the Internet discourages community-level participation then many of the voices that should be informing legislators and diplomats will be lost. Community involvement and a children's rights perspective are both needed to ensure children's safety and to create Internet policy that is usable. I encourage all to embrace this challenge. It is a process that will set the direction for Internet use for decades to come.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Canada, Department of Justice. Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. (1982.) Available at:
http://canada.justice.gc.ca/loireg/charte/const_en.html
Canada, Department of Justice. Omnibus Bill Press Release. (2001.) Available at:
http://canada.justice.gc.ca/en/news/nr/2001/doc_26058.html
Canada, Industry Canada. Illegal and Offensive Content on the
Internet. Ottawa: 2001. Available at:
http://www.connect.gc.ca/cyberwise
Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime. Sexual
Exploitation and the Internet. Ottawa, 2000.
Canadian Library Association. Net Safe; Net Smart:
Managing and Communicating About the Internet in the Library.
Ottawa: Canadian Library Association, 2001. Available at:
http://www.cla.ca/netsafe/index.htm
Crowley David and Paul Heyer, eds. Communication
in History: Technology, Culture, and Society, 2nd ed. White
Plains, NY: Longman, 1995.
Finkelhor, David, Kimberly Mitchell and Janis Wolak. Online Victimization: A Report on the Nation's Youth.
Durham, NH: National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children, June 2000. Also available at:
http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/Youth_Internet_info_page.html
Goldbach, Toby. The Liability of Internet
Service Providers for "Making", "Possessing"
and "Distributing" Child Pornography. Montréal,
QC: National Criminal Law Program, Université
de Montréal, 1999.
International Association of Prosecutors.
Combating Use of the Internet to Exploit Children. Best
Practices Series, No. 1. Available at:
http://www.iap.nl.com/
Interpol. Co-operation in Combating International
Crime. (2001.) Available at:
http://www.interpol.int/public/ICPO/GeneralAssembly/Agn65/Resolutions/AGN65RES10.asp
Ipsos-Reid Group. Face of the Web. (2000.) Available at:
http://www.ipsos-reid.com/media/dsp_displaypr_cdn.cfm?id_to_view=1001
O'Connell, Rachel. Untangling the Complexities
of Combating Paedophile Activities in Cyberspace. Cork, Ireland:
COPINE Project, Department of Applied Psychology, University College
Cork, 1999. Website:
http://copine.ucc.ie/ O'Malley, Martin and Owen Wood. The Supreme Court and Child Porn:
Saving Children or Thought Control? CBC News Online, 2001.
Available at:
http://cbc.ca/news/indepth/background/sharpe_pornography.html
UNICEF, Staff Working Papers Evaluation,
Policy and Planning Series Number EPP-99-003. Protection
of Children from Sexual Exploitation. New York, NY: United
Nations Children's Fund Programme Publications, 1999.
Available at:
http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_exploitation.html
United Nations. Convention on the Rights
of the Child. New York, NY: UN, 1989.
United Nations. Optional Protocol to the
Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children,
Child Prostitution, and Pornography. New York, NY: UN, 2000.
US Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Child Exploitation
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Exploitation. (2001.) Available at:
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/ceos/internatl.htm
Endnotes 1.
Crowley David and Paul Heyer, eds. Communication
in History: Technology, Culture, and Society. 2nd ed. White
Plains, NY: Longman, 1995.
2.
Ibid.
3.
Government of Canada, Industry Canada. Illegal and Offensive
Content on the Internet. Ottawa, 2001.
4.
Crowley & Heyer, 1995.
5.
United Nations. Optional Protocol to the
Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children,
Child Prostitution, and Pornography. New York, NY: UN, 2000.
6.
UNICEF, Staff Working Papers Evaluation,
Policy and Planning Series Number EPP-99-003. Protection
of Children from Sexual Exploitation. New York, NY: United
Nations Children's Fund Programme Publications, 1999.
Available at:
http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_exploitation.html
7.
Interpol. Co-operation in Combating International
Crime. (2001.) Available at:
http://www.interpol.int/public/ICPO/GeneralAssembly/Agn65/Resolutions/AGN65RES10.asp
8.
Interpol. Legislation of Interpol Member States on Sexual
Offences Against Children. (2001.) Available at:
http://www.interpol.int/Public/Children/SexualAbuse/NationalLaws/c
saCanada.asp
9.
CBSS Working Group on Assistance to Democratic Institutions in
Special Session. Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the
Baltic Sea Region: Comprehensive Report. Available at:
http://www.asem.org/Documents/General/cseofchildren.htm
10.
Interpol. Co-operation in Combating International
Crime. (2001.) Available at:
http://www.interpol.int/public/ICPO/GeneralAssembly/Agn65/Resolutions/AGN65RES10.asp
11.
Canada, Industry Canada. Illegal and Offensive Content
on the Internet. Ottawa: Industry Canada, 2001. Available at:
http://www.connect.gc.ca/cyberwise
12.
Ibid., page 3. 13.
Canada's Children in a Wired World: The Parents' View. (2000.)
Available at:
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/insmt-gst.nsf/en/sf05376e.html
14.
Canada, Industry Canada. Illegal and Offensive Content
on the Internet. Pages 5 & 6. Ottawa: Industry Canada,
2001. Available at:
http://www.connect.gc.ca/cyberwise 15.
Ibid., page 12. 16.
Ibid., page 11. 17.
Canadian Library Association. "Internet Service in Public
Libraries – A Matter of Trust." In Net Safe / Net Smart:
Managing and Communicating about the Internet in the Library.
Ottawa: Canadian Library Association, 2001. Available at:
http://www.cla.ca/netsafe/index.htm 18.
Ibid. 19.
Crimes Against Children Research Center,
http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/ 20.
Renata Aebi, unpublished document. 21.
Ipsos-Reid Group. Face of the Web. (2000.) Available at:
http://www.ipsos-reid.com/media/dsp_displaypr_cdn.cfm?id_to_view=1001 22.
O'Connell, Rachel. Untangling the Complexities
of Combating Paedophile Activities in Cyberspace. Cork, Ireland:
COPINE Project, Department of Applied Psychology, University College
Cork, 1999. Website:
http://copine.ucc.ie/
This discussion paper was prepared by Merlyn Horton a Simon
Fraser University student, and conducted under the direction of Renata
Aebi of the Alliance for the Rights of Children. The research was
funded by the City of New Westminster to provide background
information and set the legal context for a study on the victimization
of youth on the Internet, using New Westminster as a case study.
The Alliance for the Rights of Children (ARC) is a multi-sector
network of organizations and individuals committed to ending the
commercial sexual exploitation of children and youth. Through
research, public education, policy analysis and law reform, ARC
works collaboratively with government, researchers, legal experts and
communities across BC and Canada.
