News
Child porn sites more than double
Published: Aug 21, 2003 - 11:30 PM
Web sites for child pornography have more than doubled worldwide in the past year and Internet pedophiles are devising more cunning ways to avoid detection, British police say.
More than half of the child porn sites are hosted in the United States, the U.K.'s National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) said in its annual report released Thursday. And the number of sites based in Russia has doubled in the past year.
More than half of the child porn sites are hosted in the United States, the U.K.'s National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) said in its annual report released Thursday. And the number of sites based in Russia has doubled in the past year.
The Internet has led to a huge growth in child sex offenses, with computer-based images of young children, even babies, now largely replacing printed material.
The number of Web sites containing images of child abuse rose by 64 percent in 2002 from the previous year, NCIS said in its report based on intelligence from around the world.
Child porn sites may be hosted in one country and managed from elsewhere, making it difficult for police to trace offenders--most of whom are male--and to identify victims.
"One of the things the Internet has done is to internationalize the child pornography business,'' a NCIS representative said. "This has made it easier for offenders to escape law enforcement agencies across borders.''
Just last week, a teacher trainee in the United Kingdom was sentenced to 18 months in jail for trying to buy a 9-year-old Lithuanian girl for sex over the Internet.
NCIS warned that online sex offenders are becoming much more sophisticated in their attempts to avoid detection.
"Protecting themselves against law enforcement is a key concern, and some online child sex offenders openly discuss methods for keeping their activities from the police,'' the report said.
If an offender puts members of a child-porn network at risk--for example, through unauthorized passing on of illegal images--he is likely to have his computer targeted with viruses.
Other methods to avoid detection include debriefings of people who have been arrested to learn more about the monitoring techniques used by police and Internet watchdogs.
Online guides to all aspects of child sex are available, with links to chat rooms and the passwords needed for access to illegal images.
Even though most sex offenders act alone, the report said that organized gangs have been tempted into the trade by the profits involved.
Last year, one of the largest investigations into child porn on the Internet, Operation Ore, resulted in over 1,000 arrests in Britain after U.S. authorities passed on a list of more than 7,000 British men suspected of using their credit cards to access sites containing abusive images of children.
The number of Web sites containing images of child abuse rose by 64 percent in 2002 from the previous year, NCIS said in its report based on intelligence from around the world.
Child porn sites may be hosted in one country and managed from elsewhere, making it difficult for police to trace offenders--most of whom are male--and to identify victims.
"One of the things the Internet has done is to internationalize the child pornography business,'' a NCIS representative said. "This has made it easier for offenders to escape law enforcement agencies across borders.''
Just last week, a teacher trainee in the United Kingdom was sentenced to 18 months in jail for trying to buy a 9-year-old Lithuanian girl for sex over the Internet.
NCIS warned that online sex offenders are becoming much more sophisticated in their attempts to avoid detection.
"Protecting themselves against law enforcement is a key concern, and some online child sex offenders openly discuss methods for keeping their activities from the police,'' the report said.
If an offender puts members of a child-porn network at risk--for example, through unauthorized passing on of illegal images--he is likely to have his computer targeted with viruses.
Other methods to avoid detection include debriefings of people who have been arrested to learn more about the monitoring techniques used by police and Internet watchdogs.
Online guides to all aspects of child sex are available, with links to chat rooms and the passwords needed for access to illegal images.
Even though most sex offenders act alone, the report said that organized gangs have been tempted into the trade by the profits involved.
Last year, one of the largest investigations into child porn on the Internet, Operation Ore, resulted in over 1,000 arrests in Britain after U.S. authorities passed on a list of more than 7,000 British men suspected of using their credit cards to access sites containing abusive images of children.
