CyberLaw Blog

Archive for July 14th, 2009

Study finds no link between child porn and sex abuse | The Australian

From correspondents in Paris | July 14, 2009
Article from: Agence France-Presse

MEN without a prior sex conviction who look at child pornography on the internet are unlikely to sexually assault a child, according to Swiss scientists.

Researchers led by Frank Urbaniok of the Canton of Zurich Department of Justice delved into the criminal record of 231 men who were charged with viewing child pornography via a US website.

In the six years before the 2002 police operation, only one per cent were known to have committed a hands-on sex offence.

And only one per cent of the men committed a hands-on sex offence in the six years afterwards.

The study reinforces previous research which found most consumers of internet child pornography are well-educated and view other types of illegal pornography as well, including sexual acts involving animals or violence.

Mr Urbaniok said men who surfed the web for child pornography were sex offenders, but it should not be automatically assumed that they were a risk for sexually assaulting a child.

‘Our results support the assumption that these consumers, in fact, form a distinct group of sex offenders,’ he said.

‘Probably, the motivation for consuming child pornography differs from the motivation to physically assault minors.

‘Furthermore, the recidivism rates of one per cent for hands-on and four per cent for hands-off sex offences were quite low.’

A 2005 paper by Canadian researchers Michael Seto and Angela Eke found that of 201 men charged with child pornography offences, 24 per cent had prior offences for sexual contact.

Four per cent went on to commit a subsequent sexual offence after being charged or prosecuted.

Abstract: The consumption of Internet child pornography and violent and sex offending

by Jerome Endrass, Frank Urbaniok, Lea C Hammermeister, Christian Benz, Thomas Elbert, Arja Laubacher, and Astrid Rossegger

BMC Psychiatry 2009, 9:43doi:10.1186/1471-244X-9-43
Published: 14 July 2009

Abstract (provisional)

Background

There is an ongoing debate on whether consumers of child pornography pose a risk for hands-on sex offenses. Up until now, there have been very few studies which have analyzed the association between the consumption of child pornography and the subsequent perpetration of hands-on sex offenses. The aim of this study was to examine the recidivism rates for hands-on and hands-off sex offenses in a sample of child pornography users using a 6 year follow-up design.
Methods

The current study population consisted of 231 men, who were subsequently charged with consumption of illegal pornographic material after being detected by a special operation against Internet child pornography, conducted by the Swiss police in 2002. Criminal history, as well as recidivism, was assessed using the criminal records from 2008.
Results

4.8% (n=11) of the study sample had a prior conviction for a sexual and/or violent offense, 1% (n=2) for a hands-on sex offense, involving child sexual abuse, 3.3% (n=8) for a hands-off sex offense and one for a nonsexual violent offense. When applying a broad definition of recidivism, which included ongoing investigations, charges and convictions, 3% (n=7) of the study sample recidivated with a violent and/or sex offense, 3.9% (n=9) with a hands-off sex offense and 0.8% (n=2) with a hands-on sex offense.
Conclusions

Consuming child pornography alone is not a risk factor for committing hands-on sex offenses – at least not for those subjects who had never committed a hands-on sex offense. The majority of the investigated consumers had no previous convictions for hands-on sex offenses. For those offenders, the prognosis for hands-on sex offenses, as well as for recidivism with child pornography, is favorable.

EU – Personal data protection ? consultation on legal framework: “(Tech and Law blog)
The EU are conducting a wide-ranging consultation to seek views on the new challenges for personal data protection in order to maintain an effective and comprehensive legal framework to protect individual?s personal data within the EU. Any views may be submitted by email, whether by citizen or organisation or public authority, on: What are the new challenges for personal data protection, in particular in the light of new technologies and globalisation? Does the current legal framework meets these challenges? What future action would be needed to address the identified challenges? The consultation web page has links to useful background papers, including papers and slides from a data protection conference ‘Personal data ? more use, more protection’ held by the Commission in May 2009. For that conference there are slides on identity management as well as data protection, freedom of information, transparency, security and law ? all of which are relevant here. Deadline for submission of contributiosn: 31 December 2009.

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(Via QuickLinks Update.)

France takes third swing at ‘three-strikes’ law: “

The human right to the interwebs

France’s controversial ‘three-strikes’ internet law is getting another do-over. Originally rejected by the country’s National Assembly, revised then declared unconstitutional, the anti-file sharer bill has yet again been revamped and passed for consideration by the French constitutional court.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

EDPS calls for strong emphasis on fundamental rights in future Stockholm Programme

Reference: EDPS/09/8, Date: 13/07/2009

Area of freedom, security and justice: EDPS calls for strong emphasis on fundamental rights in future Stockholm Programme

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has adopted an opinion on the European Commission’s Communication of 10 June 2009 entitled ‘An area of freedom, security and justice serving the citizen’. The Communication is the Commission’s contribution to the discussions on the new EU programme for the next five years in the area of justice and home affairs, the so called Stockholm programme, which is due to be adopted by the European Council in December 2009.

The EDPS supports the attention that has been devoted in the Communication to the protection of fundamental rights, and in particular the protection of personal data, as one of the key issues of the future framework for EU action on the questions of citizenship, justice, security, asylum and immigration. He fully endorses the Commission’s view that more emphasis should be given to data protection in the areas concerned, and calls for the European Council to follow the same approach when adopting the Stockholm multi-annual programme.

Peter Hustinx, EDPS, says: ‘ I am pleased to see that the Commission’s Communication promotes a right balance between the need for appropriate instruments to guarantee the security of the citizens and the protection of their fundamental rights. Serving the citizens requires a European Union that safeguards this balance. This is all the more important since the policies in this area have great impact in the citizens’ daily life and private space. I therefore expect the Council to go along the same path in the adoption of the Stockholm programme. ‘

Taking the need for protection of fundamental rights as main angle of the analysis, the EDPS opinion focuses on the following issues:

* need for a comprehensive data protection scheme : the EDPS fully supports the call for a comprehensive data protection scheme covering all areas of EU competence, regardless of the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty;
* data protection principles : the EDPS welcomes the intention of the Commission to reaffirm a number of basic principles of data protection. He emphasises the importance of the purpose limitation principle (*) as a cornerstone of data protection law. Focus should also be given to the possibilities for improving the effectiveness of the application of data protection principles, in particular through instruments than can reinforce the responsibilities of the data controllers;
* European information model : the EDPS notes the developments towards a European information model and an EU Information Management Strategy with great interest and underlines the attention that should be given in these projects to data protection elements, to be further elaborated in the Stockholm programme. The architecture for information exchange should be based on ‘privacy by design’ (**) and ‘Best Available Techniques’ (***) .

(*) Data should be collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes, and not further processed for purposes incompatible with those purposes (Article 6(1)(b) of Directive 95/46/EC). Exceptions to this principle are only allowed under strict safeguards (Article 13 of Directive 95/46/EC).

(**) Data protection requirements should be applied and integrated as early as possible in the life cycle of new technological developments and of information systems.

(***) The most advanced stage in the development of particular techniques that is practically suitable and effective for providing the basis for complying with the EU data protection framework.

The opinion is available here.

Written material saved from censor’s big black pen – for now: “

Lords suicide debate saves the day

Censorship of written material is off the agenda – for now: and for that we may need to thank Lord Falconer’s intense interest in suicide.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Dubya surveillance exceeded warrantless wiretaps: “

Secret snooping still secret

As yet unrevealed domestic intelligence activities by the Bush administration sent shock waves through Washington on Friday, as a report critical of post-9/11 US surveillance programs capped a week of increasingly acrimonious debate in the American capital about Bush-era policies.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)