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New study highlights need for education and collaboration to address child sexual abuse websites Anonymous . Canada NewsWire ; Ottawa [Ottawa]18 Nov 2009.

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ABSTRACT (ABSTRACT) Cybertip.ca is Canada's tipline for reporting the online sexual exploitation of children. The tipline is part of the

Government of Canada's National Strategy to Protect Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet. Since its

launch, Cybertip.ca has received close to 40,000 reports resulting in at least 52 arrests executed by law

enforcement and numerous children removed from abusive environments. In partnership with Bell Canada,

Cybertip.ca's Research Series pulls together the most crucial aspects of the tens of thousands of reports

submitted by the Canadian public. This report is the first in a series that will include the publication of unique

research in the area of online child sexual exploitation, and will promote the creation of best practices for child

protection in Canada.

What is Cybertip.ca? Owned and operated by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, Cybertip.ca is Canada's

national tipline for reporting the online sexual exploitation of children. Cybertip.ca accepts and addresses online

and telephone reports from the public regarding child pornography (child abuse images and material), online luring,

child exploitation through prostitution, travelling to sexually exploit children, and child trafficking. Cybertip.ca was

launched as a provincial pilot program (Manitoba) in September 2002, and in May 2004, along with the RCMP's

National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre, became part of the Government of Canada's National Strategy to

Protect Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet.

The Report - Child Sexual Abuse Images: An Analysis of Websites by Cybertip.ca: This study examines reports

made by the public to Cybertip.ca between September 26, 2002 and March 31, 2009. It focuses on child sexual

abuse images on websites and provides an overview of the problem of child pornography. Of the 35,111 website

incidents (one public report may contain information about an email and a website - this would be considered two

separate incidents, as they would have to be analyzed independently) processed by Cybertip.ca during this time,

15,662 involved sites hosting child pornography, thus the number of incidents analyzed in this report. FULL TEXT Extreme young age of victims and severity of abuse underscores need for

immediate action

WINNIPEG, Nov. 18 /CNW/ - The Canadian Centre for Child Protection today released a new study titled Child

Sexual Abuse Images: An analysis of websites by Cybertip.ca. The study reinforces concerns regarding the scope

and severity of child sexual abuse imagery and underscores the need for additional solutions.

"Child victimization of any kind is a horrifying crime," said Peter Van Loan, Canada's Minister of Public Safety. "That

is why we continue to support the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, which helps bring those to justice who

misuse changing technology to victimize children. Through the National Strategy for the Protection of Children

from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet, our government continues to enhance the tools law enforcement need to

prevent, investigate and prosecute these serious crimes."

The report was based on the examination of nearly 16,000 incidents involving sites hosting child pornography and

the analysis of more than 4,000 unique images of child sexual abuse. More than 82% of the images assessed by

Cybertip.ca depicted very young, pre-pubescent children under 12 years of age. Most concerning was the severe

abuse depicted, with more than 35% of all images showing serious sexual assaults.

"What makes this particularly concerning is the very young age of the children in the images. These children are

most likely being accessed and sexually abused by someone they know. Not only is it devastating for a child to be

abused, but to have the abuse recorded and distributed on the Internet adds another layer of trauma," said Lianna

McDonald, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. "This is a call to action to all Canadians

to learn to recognize the signs of abuse, and to report their suspicions of abuse. We need to disrupt and hopefully

stop child sexual abuse and prevent it from being memorialized and traded on the Internet."

The report emphasizes the critical need for child sexual abuse education. Special attention should be given to

educating children 12 years and under on this subject to help build their skills and confidence to possibly disrupt

and disclose abuse. Building public awareness on the issue of child sexual abuse and encouraging adults to report

is another highlighted outcome. The study also provides an in-depth analysis of reports made by the public to

Cybertip.ca. As a result of this analysis, a series of 12 recommendations were provided to assist educators, policy

makers, and other stakeholders who are working to reduce the online sexual exploitation of children.

"This report clearly reiterates the importance of a national tipline through which members of the public can actively

participate in child protection by reporting IT-enabled child sexual exploitation," said Superintendent John Bilinski,

of the Canadian Police Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. "As a partner of the Canadian Police Centre for

Missing and Exploited Children, Cybertip.ca plays a key triage role that allows police to focus their efforts on

investigations while ensuring that the public receives accurate awareness and prevention information. This

increased understanding enhances our collective ability to protect children."

At the time of the analysis, more than 60 countries were hosting child sexual abuse content. Additionally, in one 48

hour period, Cybertip.ca observed a website cycle through 212 unique IP addresses, located in 16 different

countries.

"We know from our 35 hotlines around the world the challenges in addressing illegal website content. Offenders

are taking full advantage of the architecture of the Internet, variances in legislation, and are deliberately moving

sites to evade the law," says Ruben Rodriguez, President of Inhope (International Hotline Association).

"International collaboration involving a variety of stakeholders is the only way we are going to successfully tackle

Internet-facilitated crimes against children."

In addition, the study, which was done in partnership with Bell Canada, provides information on the global

movement of child sexual abuse websites, identifies the challenges with the borderless nature of the Internet, and

recommends additional solutions for tackling this problem.

"For several years, Bell Canada has been committed to fighting the online sexual exploitation of children by

supporting Cybertip.ca. Our goal in funding this report is to look beyond traditional industry efforts and explore

innovative solutions that may better assist in protecting children," said Mirko Bibic, Bell Canada's Senior Vice

President Regulatory and Government Affairs. "We are optimistic that our investment in research and prevention

will help ensure that technology is not misused to aid in the harm and abuse of children."

Solutions to accurately identify those who operate these child abuse websites include working with the Internet

Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to adopt standards for ensuring the validity of the

registrant's personal information. This is one of the twelve recommendations identified in the report.

Cybertip.ca is Canada's tipline for reporting the online sexual exploitation of children. The tipline is part of the

Government of Canada's National Strategy to Protect Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet. Since its

launch, Cybertip.ca has received close to 40,000 reports resulting in at least 52 arrests executed by law

enforcement and numerous children removed from abusive environments. In partnership with Bell Canada,

Cybertip.ca's Research Series pulls together the most crucial aspects of the tens of thousands of reports

submitted by the Canadian public. This report is the first in a series that will include the publication of unique

research in the area of online child sexual exploitation, and will promote the creation of best practices for child

protection in Canada.

Media Note: to access a full copy of the report, the summary report, or backgrounders on the report's keys

statistics, recommendations and priorities for education, please visit the Canadian Centre's website at:

www.protectchildren.ca or the national tipline at: www.cybertip.ca.

Media Backgrounder:

Child Sexual Abuse Images: An Analysis of Websites by Cybertip.ca

What is the Canadian Centre for Child Protection? The Canadian Centre for Child Protection is a national non-profit,

charitable organization dedicated to the personal safety of all children. The Centre's goal is to reduce child

victimization by providing programs and services to the Canadian public.

What is Cybertip.ca? Owned and operated by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, Cybertip.ca is Canada's

national tipline for reporting the online sexual exploitation of children. Cybertip.ca accepts and addresses online

and telephone reports from the public regarding child pornography (child abuse images and material), online luring,

child exploitation through prostitution, travelling to sexually exploit children, and child trafficking. Cybertip.ca was

launched as a provincial pilot program (Manitoba) in September 2002, and in May 2004, along with the RCMP's

National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre, became part of the Government of Canada's National Strategy to

Protect Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet.

On average, Cybertip.ca receives more than 700 reports and 100,000 page views to its website per month.

Cybertip.ca analysts review all reports and forward those with potentially illegal content to police. Reports have

resulted in a number of arrests, as well as numerous children being removed from abusive environments. (Analysts

hold Special Constable Status in order to review and create these reports.)

What is Child Pornography? Child pornography is a permanent record of the sexual abuse of a child. It can be an

image, an audio recording, a video, a drawing, or a story about the sexual assault of a child. It is created

deliberately and can be shared easily through the Internet, online platforms, and portable technology devices. Child

sexual abuse is a crime and a significant problem that the public can't ignore.

The Report - Child Sexual Abuse Images: An Analysis of Websites by Cybertip.ca: This study examines reports

made by the public to Cybertip.ca between September 26, 2002 and March 31, 2009. It focuses on child sexual

abuse images on websites and provides an overview of the problem of child pornography. Of the 35,111 website

incidents (one public report may contain information about an email and a website - this would be considered two

separate incidents, as they would have to be analyzed independently) processed by Cybertip.ca during this time,

15,662 involved sites hosting child pornography, thus the number of incidents analyzed in this report.

Findings about child abuse images: The results of this analysis provide some disturbing data on the issue of child

pornography. Most concerning is the severity of abuse depicted, with 35% of all images that were analyzed

depicting serious sexual assaults against a child. Also troubling are the ages of the children depicted in the images

with children under 8 years old most likely to be abused through sexual assaults in the images. Even more

alarming is the extreme sexual assaults (bondage, torture and bestiality) which occur against children under 8

years old. These statistics challenge the misconception that child pornography consists largely of innocent or

harmless nude photographs of children.

Of the webpages analyzed, 78% had at least one abuse image of a child less than 8 years of age with many

showing infants or toddlers being assaulted. Most often, images of children under 8 years of age depicted them

being abused through sexual assaults. The images of older children typically depicted them posed nude or in a

sexualized way.

Gender also played a role in the research with 83 per cent of the images depicting girls. This highlights the need for

gender-related educational materials and working with organizations that work specifically with girls such as the

Girl Guides. This may help in the effort to educate girls to recognize sexual abuse and report sexually abusive

behaviour.

The marketing aspect of websites hosting child abuse images: The report revealed that there is a marketing

component to many websites hosting child sex abuse images with the layout of websites designed to direct

attention to the images and focusing on a variety of children. It was found that over 50 per cent of websites were

accepting at least one form of credit card payment, and using language seen on adult pornography websites in an

attempt to normalize the viewing of such images.

The study also provides information on the global movement of child sexual abuse websites, identifies the

challenges with the borderless nature of the Internet, and recommends additional solutions for tackling this

problem. The reality is that illegal content is widely and publicly available and moves in an effort to avoid being

shut down. In a 48 hour period, Cybertip.ca observed one website cycle through 212 IP addresses, located in 16

different countries.

RECOMMENDATIONS: The report presents a series of 12 recommendations in the areas of education and public

awareness, technical and policy development, and research opportunities.

1. The creation of educational materials for children 12 years and under

in order to help young children recognize signs of the abuse process

and disclose to a trusted adult if they are being abused or

photographed inappropriately. Adults also need to learn to recognize

the possible signs of abuse. Tools should be provided to caregivers

in the areas of healthy parenting and understanding and recognizing

the signs of abuse.

2. Collaboration between tiplines such as Cybertip.ca around the world

to begin tracking infants and toddlers in child abuse imagery to

allow a better idea if there is a growing audience for images of very

young children being abused. This will also open a dialogue about

prevention strategies to better protect pre-school children.

3. Creation of gender-related educational materials in response to the

large percentage of girls depicted in abuse imagery.

4. Working with law enforcement and Internet service and content

providers to remove illegal content from Canadian servers.

5. Establishing international standards for the personal information a

registrant is required to provide when registering a new domain name.

6. Partnering with domain name registrants to have domains hosting

illegal content discarded from use so new website owners cannot

purchase domains known to host child pornography and reuse it for the

same purpose.

7. Need for further research on the impact of child sexual abuse on

victims and whether the Internet has changed the nature and extent of

their trauma and healing process.

8. Collaboration and data sharing between organizations dealing with

online sexual exploitation of children.

9. Research is needed to determine how words are being used on websites

hosting online sexual abuse images.

10. Track the use of unique title bars on websites hosting child abuse

images.

11. Establish a coalition of stakeholders such as law enforcement, the

financial industry and Internet service providers, to develop

solutions to the commercial aspects of child sexual abuse images.

12. When a site has been identified as fast flux (ever-changing network

of compromised hosts acting as proxies) it is possible to determine

which IP addresses are being used to serve the content, which means

tiplines around the world could work with Internet service providers

to notify them of compromised computers on their network. Internet

service providers could choose to suspend the customer's service

until the infected machine is fixed.

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Publication title: Canada NewsWire; Ottawa

Publication year: 2009

Publication date: Nov 18, 2009

Dateline: Manitoba

Publisher: PR Newswire Association LLC

Place of publication: Ottawa

Country of publication: United States, Ottawa

Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Canada

Source type: Wire Feeds

Language of publication: English

Document type: News

ProQuest document ID: 453070900

Document URL: https://search.proquest.com/docview/453070900?accountid=8289

Copyright: (Copyright (c) 2009 Canada Newswire. All rights reserved.)

Last updated: 2017-11-17

Database: ProQuest Central