The struggle of combating child pornography through public policing. Written by: Amandine Ducros

 The rise of child pornography in the modern era

    The new growth of information technology has introduced a new form of criminality to the criminal justice system : cyber crime (Marcum, Higgins, Freiburger & Ricketts, 2010). Cyberspace has no physical geography, no territorial boundaries exist (Wells, 2000). Cyber child porn, like cyber crime, is difficult to control because by its very nature its disrespects national boundaries (Schell, Martin, Hung, & Rueda , 2007), making the task of the police force even more complicated. Indeed, information communication technology facilitates abuse and exploitation of children online, especially child pornography (Jalil, 2015). Child pornography can be defined as the sexually explicit pictures or films involving younger people under the age of 18  (Marcum, Higgins, Freiburger & Ricketts, 2010) and is available on the Internet in many different formats : pictures, videos, sound files, stories (Burk, Sowerbutts, Blundell, 2002). According to O’Brian (2014), policing can be defined as the maintenance of law and order and enforcing observance of a jurisdiction’s laws and checking regulations within a particular sphere or domain. Cybercrime, including online abuse of children, is still a relatively new area of criminality and the police service tends to respond to innovation very slowly (Jewkes & Andrews, 2005). Thus, as policing the internet often involves exploring unknown territories with numerous obstacles, combating child pornography through public policing is a real struggle (Marcum, Higgins, Freiburger & Ricketts, 2010)

          

A lack of consensus on the definition of child pornography : a legal challenge

            At a national level, the availability of laws dealing with child pornography is the most important weapon to fight the creation (Akdeniz, 2016). However, the immensity and rapid growth of cyberspace has outstripped the ability of the law to keep pace : the advent of the Internet and the increasing sophistication of computer technology in general has allowed distributors and consumers of child pornography to become more organized (Wells, 2000). Furthermore, the legal definition of what actually constitutes child porn differs from jurisdiction to jurisdiction (Schell, Martin, Hung, & Rueda , 2007). For example, a person is considered to be a child if under the age of 18 in Sweden and France, under 15 in Denmark and under 14 in Germany (Burk, Sowerbutts, Blundell, 2002). These differences in the legal framework of different countries means that public policing should have the capacity to adapt to different legal circumstances, which is not always the case.

The technical and social challenges of policing child pornography

            The volume of material handled by the police is a first challenge as it can lead to delays in processing cases, an increasing problem as the pornography industry is rapidly expanding (Easton, 2005). Limited resources, police occupational culture, barriers in the collaboration between concerned parties, obstacles in criminal investigation, lack of knowledge and inadequate training of police officers are obstacles to the effective policing of Internet pornography (Jewkes & Andrews, 2005 ; Stol, 2002).

Indeed, law enforcement officers need specialize training in investigation tactics in order to prepare for the tackling of cybercrime including child pornography (Jewkes & Andrews, 2005). For example, the use of undercover strategies in cyberspace in order to tackle the issue of child pornography, requests special training and experience (Stol, 2002), training that is generally lacking. However, studies have also shown that the methods used by specialized police such as in the US and Canada for catching cyber criminals that distribute cyber pornography, including child pornography, are considered primitive and inefficient (Schell, Martin, Hung, & Rueda , 2007).

In the particular context of England and Wales, lack of training is a problem that arises from restricted resources and lack of will from within senior ranks (Jewkes & Andrews, 2005). Furthermore, police in England and Wales are hampered by the fact that their priorities and performance are measured by a gvmt-set Key Performance Indicators, which do not include the policing of child pornography (Jewkes & Andrews, 2005). Consequently, it is unlikely that the government will direct resources into a type of crime that is costly, difficult to investigate and intangible (Jewkes & Andrews, 2005). The reticence at government level to adequately resource the policing of cybercrime has a bearing on the decisions made by managers at a local policing level (Jewkes & Andrews, 2005). The weak commitment to training is exacerbated by the speed in which computer technologies move forward (Jewkes & Andrews, 2005). The insufficient or non-existent training in the investigation of computer-mediated crimes hinders police officers and afflicts investigations (Jewkes & Andrews, 2005).       

Anonymity provided by the Internet is another major challenge encountered by the police when combating child pornography. Indeed, Internet provides offenders with a large degree of security and anonymity (Burk, Sowerbutts, Blundell, 2002 ; Well, 2000), making it even harder to track and identify the offender(s) (Stol, 2002). Furthermore, as the child pornography market is smaller than that for adults and is highly secret, offenders are even more difficult to identify (Easton, 2005).

Since crime on the internet is a cross-border phenomenon, and to govern crime effectively, police forces from different countries must collaborate more than they do. Indeed, the Internet does not adhere to regional or national boundaries, so does not fit into existing patterns of collaboration (Stol, 2002). The fight against child pornography, and cybercrime in general, requires the police to cooperate with foreign departments more frequently then before. Police officers thus have to intensify cross-border relationships, a not so easy task (Stol, 2002).

Conclusion

Even though it is clear that inadequate resources and the lack of technical expertise can hinder police operations, the main problem for the law enforcement agencies regarding Internet related criminal activity remains the transnational nature of these crimes (Akdeniz, 2016). A potential solution could be the harmonization of child pornography laws as well as harmonization of procedural laws (Akdeniz, 2016). However, when reflecting on new policing strategies in the context oc cybercrime and the delicate issue of child pornography, we must make sure to not upset the balance between policing child pornography and the respect of fundamental human rights and data protection (Akdeniz, 2016). Combating the problem of child porn requires a multi-faceted defence (Schell, Martin, Hung, & Rueda , 2007, which should start with better crime investigation training (Marcum, Higgins, Freiburger & Ricketts, 2010).