Program targets child exploitation

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 12/08/2006 1:24 PM

Rita A. Widiadana, The Jakarta Post, Kuta, Bali

One of the world's largest software companies calls on Indonesian law enforcers to use technology to protect children from exploitation online.

Katharina A. Bostick, the senior director of legal and corporate affairs for Asia Pacific, China and Japan at U.S.-based computer giant Microsoft, says online abuse has become a serious worldwide problem.

""Child pornography, pedophilia, child trafficking and other types of child exploitation have been conducted online and therefore it is high time for the police, law enforcers and governments all over the world to immediately deal with this contentious issue,"" Bostick told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the four-day workshop on the Internet exploitation of children Wednesday.

Cyber-crimes, especially those involving children, are increasing at an alarming rate, she said.

The U.S.-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children stated in its Online Victimization Report that approximately one in five American children who used the Internet regularly were sexually solicited or approached online in 1999. The report also found that one in 33 received an aggressive sexual solicitation, meaning that a solicitor asked to meet them somewhere, called them on the telephone, or sent them regular mail, money or gifts.

""Indonesia and Cambodia as well as neighboring countries like Thailand have become a paradise for globe-traveling sexual offenders, pedophiles and human traffickers,"" Bostick said.

In Indonesia, areas such as Batam Island, Medan in North Sumatra, West Java, Central Java, Bali and West Nusa Tenggara have become favorite places for people preying on youngsters, she said.

There are an estimated 1.5 million images and live-streaming videos capturing Asian children and teenagers in the virtual world of the Internet and cellular phones. Some are posted without names, but many bear names, addresses and even telephone numbers. ""It has been very easy to access those images and often they (the children) become `soft targets' for the offenders,"" she explained.

A report from the anti-trafficking group ECPAT called Violence against Children in Cyberspace found Asia is the leading growth market for connectivity. With only an estimated 8.4 percent of the Asian population having access to cyberspace, the market has considerable room to expand. The number of mobile phone subscribers in the Asia-Pacific region, for example, will rocket from 230 million in 2000 to an estimated of 1 billion by 2010.

""To cope with these sophisticated cyber-crimes, the police, law enforcers, governments and society have to master and keep up with information technology. Otherwise, they (the criminals) cannot be tracked and children all over the world will face very frightening threats,"" she added.

Microsoft has created a special software tool called the Child Exploitation Tracking System (CETS), pronounced `kets'. The program was developed together with the Canadian police and international law enforcers.

It allows authorities around the world to collaborate and share information with other police departments. CETS was created to give investigators a way to store, search, and share and analyze large volumes of evidence and match cases across police agencies.

Indonesia has been using CETS software since June. It was the first country in Asia and only the second in the world, after Canada, to adopt it. Its use in Indonesia was made possible by close collaboration among the Indonesian Police, the Canadian Police, the Australian Federal Police and Microsoft.

""Indonesia is applying CETS in eight provinces: Riau, North Sumatra, West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, East Java, Bali and West Nusa Tenggara,"" explained Eddy Hartono of the police's cyber-crime and information technology department.

The department is collecting and sharing information on previous cases of child exploitation and pedophilia from these eight provinces.

The workshop, organized by the National Police and Microsoft, brought together police officers from across Indonesia to learn more about cyber-crimes, especially those targeting children, and how to use information technology to strengthen efforts against it.

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