CyberLaw Blog

Archive for February 5th, 2009

Websites for children must register their moderators, says new law: “Organisations with interactive websites likely to be used mainly by children must ensure that staff moderating the sites are not barred from working with children from October.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Sexual abuse of children: MEPs want to criminalise “grooming” on the Internet

(Plenary sessions)
Justice and home affairs – 03-02-2009 – 13:26

‘Grooming’ and paedophile chat rooms on the Internet should be criminalised, sex crimes should be subject to an extraterritorial legislation, the EP says in a report adopted in Strasbourg. MEPs call on the EU to fund prevention programmes from its general budget. By adopting the report with 591 votes in favour, 2 against and 6 abstentions, MEPs call for the criminalisation of ‘all types of sexual abuse of children’ including ‘grooming.’ (the action of soliciting children for sexual purposes).
Providers of Internet chat rooms and forums where paedophile activities take place should be criminalised. Those whose work involves regular contact with children should also have the obligation to report situations where abuse is suspected, MEPs say. Applicants to certain posts working with children should also undergo criminal records check.

The EU should fund prevention programmes

The European Parliament called on the European Commission to revise the framework decision as to create national management systems for sex offenders including risk assessment and intervention programmes and therapies to minimise the risk of repeated offenses. Such programmes could be funded from the EU’s general budget, members say.

They also call on the Member states to encourage the victims of sexual exploitation to file criminal and civil claims in the national courts against sex offenders.

Advertisements encouraging sexual abuse towards children should be prohibited, and child sex tourism should be considered a crime in all Member States. Moreover, EU citizens who commit a sex crime outside the EU should be subject to uniform extraterritorial criminal legislation.

MEPs also underline that seven member states have still not signed the Council of Europe convention on this issue, and eight have not ratified the optional protocol on the UN convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

REF. : 20090203IPR48104

Texts adopted – Tuesday, 3 February 2009 – Combating the sexual exploitation of children and child pornography – P6_TA-PROV(2009)0040

European Parliament recommendation of 3 February 2009 to the Council on combating the sexual exploitation of children and child pornography (2008/2144(INI))
(more…)

European Parliament wants criminalization of online ‘grooming’: “

Hosting dodgy chatrooms too

The European Parliament has asked the EU to make online ‘grooming’ a criminal offense.…

“

(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Parliament probes privacy law: “

Could give it legislative ‘nudge’

Parliament will investigate privacy law in the UK and may give the law a ‘nudge’, Justice Minister Jack Straw has said. A select committee of MPs will look into how the law has developed and how it is being implemented by courts, he said.…

“

(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Google on trial over Italian ‘defamation’ vid: “

Execs face jail time for Turin teenagers’ taunt

The Privacy Trial of the Century is already waving jail time at three current Google execs and its former chief financial officer. And now there’s an added complaint against the company itself.…

“

(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Google gains a little Latitude – Which? News: “Google gains a little Latitude Privacy concerns raised over latest service

04 February 2009
Google Maps logo

Search giant Google is introducing a service called Latitude, which will allow people to track the whereabouts of others from mobile devices and via the web.

People can opt-in to the service and allow trusted people such as their partner or friends to see their approximate location, for instance if they’re stuck in traffic or held up due to bad conditions such as snow.

As well as seeing friends’ locations on a map, you can use text messaging, Google Talk or Gmail to update your status message.
Shared data

Privacy experts have expressed concerns that the service is open to abuse.

Yaman Akdeniz, founder and directory of civil liberties organisation Cyber-rights and Cyber-liberties, said: ‘Users need more education before consenting for their data to be shared. What if your boss is one of your friends and you say you’re ill and you are in the pub!

‘There is a danger that companies want to use it for offering services when we go shopping such as in the film Minority Report. Today, it is Google, tomorrow it will be others, the question is will privacy concerns be taken into consideration.’

Google Latitude is the latest in a number of web and mobile based technologies to track individuals’ data including the controversial Street View within Google Maps. Similarly, Vodafone has shared customers’ data with sat-nav maker Tom-Tom to help it to predict traffic jams.

Google says it has taken privacy concerns into consideration and that it has ‘built fine-grained privacy controls right into the application. Everything about Latitude is opt-in’.”

(Via .)