We Have The Technology To Stop Child Pornography
Child Pornography is the photographing, filming, videotaping,
artistic rendering or writing of explicit or implied sexual
activity of children, the final product of these acts and the
activity of distributing these items. On a worldwide basis,
Child Pornography generated approximately US$3 billion in 2004
(CDN$4 billion, GBP 2 billion). While Child Pornography has
existed throughout history, the introduction of technology such
as the Internet, digital image technology and storage has
fostered the exponential growth of this crime. There are
paedophiles and organized child sex rings that thrive off of,
and propagate this crime without regard or remorse for their
victims. The typical age range of their victims is from 3 to 12
years of age. The act of Child Pornography sees the innocent
trust of an unknowing child betrayed, a child coerced or tricked
into an abusive situation, or a child threatened with violence
in order to perform. The scars left on a child from these acts
will last a lifetime.
Five percent of all adult Internet traffic contains some form
of Child Pornography while three percent of adult websites offer
access to illegal Child Pornography. Each day approximately 75
million e-mails worldwide contain some form of Child Pornography
and each month approximately 45 million files are downloaded or
shared worldwide.
Today, the major challenge for law enforcement in stopping
Child Pornography and Child Pornographers lies in the ability to
identify the perpetrators and distribution of this material.
Given the limited resources available, law enforcement has been
able to make some gains in reducing Child Pornography. The trend
by most governments is to legislate Internet Service Providers
into filtering content so that Child Pornography doesn't reach
subscribers computers and report subscribers that may be
suspect. Furthermore, sentencing of Child Pornographers is
seldom in tune with the crime and its impact on society. Most
white collar crimes will carry stiffer penalties than a crime of
child pornography. While this shields the public and restricts
access and distribution for low level pornographers it does very
little to apprehend those directly involved at the source of
manipulating the world's children.
However, the major governments of the world have the technology
in place to shut down 60% to 70% of Child Pornography on the
Internet and identify those responsible. The problem lies in
political will and receiving the mandate to do so.
In 1971 a system known as ECHELON was established by the United
States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The purpose of ECHELON was and still is today, to monitor and
intercept global communications for the purpose of national
security interests between the five countries. Using
supercomputers and skilled intelligence analysts, the system
monitors 3 billion communications daily including telephone
calls, e-mail messages, Internet downloads, satellite
transmissions, video transmissions and several other
communications modalities. Regardless of whether the
communication is sent by radio waves, cable, fibre or infrared;
ECHELON has the capability to "listen in". The system monitors
all of the world's communications indiscriminately and then
filters out or selects specific transmissions based on keyword
phrases, digital signatures, digital image values and other
preprogrammed criteria using a combination of artificial
intelligence, fuzzy logic and the power of supercomputers.
It is not surprising that ECHELON routinely monitors 90% of all
of the world's Internet traffic. With this capability alone,
ECHELON could intercept and identify 67 million e-mails
containing Child Pornography on a daily basis and track these
back to the originator and recipient. This action alone, if
properly followed up would lock down the Internet and lock out
60% of the distribution of Child Pornography world wide, leading
to the arrest of those involved. ECHELON is the largest signals
intelligence (SIGINT) system in the world. In addition, there
are smaller, national systems of similar capability operated in
the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, the European Union, Russia, China, Germany, Israel,
France and India.
In a perfect world, ECHELON and these smaller national SIGINT
(Signals Intelligence) systems would be utilized to aid law
enforcement in the war on Child Pornography. But sadly, this is
not the case. The United States government refuses to
officially, publicly acknowledge that ECHELON exists while the
other four countries involved in the system have accepted the
fact that the majority of their citizens know about the system
in general terms but are not forthcoming on any other
information regarding these systems that their citizens pay for
via their taxes.
As of 20 June 2005 I had assembled a petition consisting of
well over 5 million signatories from around the globe that
reflected my efforts of a full year of lobbying and mobilizing
the world's Internet community in an effort to use this untapped
resource to save the world's children from being victims of
Child Pornography. While some may balk at this mere 5 million,
it has been quite an accomplishment considering that despite my
own personal activities in the North American mainstream
broadcast media, this initiative received virtually no promotion
or mention in the North American broadcast or print media.
Sadly, it simply was not newsworthy enough. This petition was
digitally presented on this same date to the five sovereign
signatories involved in ECHELON to urge them to use this system
in the identification of Child Pornography and as an aid to
local law enforcement in the apprehension of Child
Pornographers. It is my sincerest hope, that this initiative,
dubbed "The Ing Initiative" may be given consideration by the
world's governments.
I began this initiative because I believed and still believe
that it is better to take a stand on an issue rather than leave
it alone because it may not be popular, politically correct or
that someone else or government should take care of it. I hope
that you will consider joining me.
Whether you have participated in my petition or are just
learning about this initiative, it is still not too late. Please
write your local federal government representative and tell him
or her how you feel about Child Pornography.
We have the technology to stop Child Pornography. Let's use it!