New Internet crime-prevention tool blocks online access to child abuse material

Interpol has launched an international initiative to provide a list of Internet domains containing severe child sexual abuse content to Internet Access Service Providers (ASPs) voluntarily participating in the scheme to reduce the availability of such material on the web.

Under the scheme, Internet users attempting to access severe child abuse material on the web will be re-directed away, either to an Interpol stop page or to an error page.

Interpol’s Trafficking in Human Beings unit, which leads the fight against child sexual exploitation, will work with the organisation’s national central bureaus and international police forces among its 188 member countries in updating and enlarging this ‘worst of’ list of domains containing severe child sexual abuse material, according to criteria defined in collaboration with the pan-European police project CIRCAMP – the COSPOL (Comprehensive Operational Strategic Planning for the Police) Internet Related Child Abusive Material Project.

“This initiative is a key tool of preventive policing against the online exploitation of child sexual abuse victims and will complement existing policing on the Internet,” said Jon Eyers, Interpol’s assistant director of Trafficking in Human Beings unit, which deals with child abuse images.

“Its prevention capabilities will aid in global law enforcement efforts to detect persons, disrupt and dismantle networks and organisations that produce, distribute and possess child sexual abuse material – while at the same time it will help protect the rights of abused children,” added Mr Eyers.

At the 2009 Interpol General Assembly in Singapore, member countries voted unanimously to adopt a resolution limiting the online distribution of child sexual abuse images. The resolution encourages member countries to promote the use of all the technical tools available, including access blocking of websites containing child sexual abuse images.