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GUJ 1-09: The bad places on the Internet
News: Feb 10, 2009
“The Internet is like a city”, says Alisdair Gillespie. “There are good places and bad ones. But in the real world you can usually see the people you’re in contact with. On the Internet you never know.”
He is Visiting Professor at the Department of Applied IT during 2009 and is participating in a unique collaboration between technology and law.
Pornography and grooming, i.e. when an adult befriends a child in order to subsequently make sexual contact, are two examples of child abuse on the Internet. Even though most people agree that it is important to protect children and teenagers, it is difficult to do so within today’s legal system.
“Information and Communication Technologies offer wonderful new ways for people to get in touch. And the fact that you can be anonymous can often be a good thing. But as we all know the Internet can also be used for bad purposes. And updating the police in new technologies, not to mention making changes in the legislation, takes time. Today the police can only interfere after the abuse has taken place but it’s much more difficult to be proactive and prevent crime happening.”
Alisdair Gillespie is a barrister, but he works as a lecturer in criminal law in the Department of Law at Leicester De Montfort Law School in the United Kingdom. His field of research is sex offences facilitated by ICT, a subject on which he has published three books. He is also an adviser to the UK Government on issues concerning child abuse on the Internet.
During 2009 he will be a Visiting Professor at the IT University and this collaboration between law and technology is something quite new.
“But the problems we’re dealing with are also rather new,” says doctoral student Marie Eneman, who is working together with Alistair Gillespie on a comparison between the way law, police and technology are used in the UK and Sweden. “And it’s important to remember that ICT can be so many things, such as the World Wide Web, e-mail and IRC. The child abusers use all these forms of technology.”
13- to 15-year old girls from middle-class families, where both parents are at work for most of the day, are the main target for grooming. One reason for this is that these girls often have their own computers and can spend several hours alone on the Internet before their parents return home.
“It’s also an age when young people rebel against their parents and want to be considered adult”, Alisdair Gillespie explains. “If a young girl meets somebody on the Internet who claims to be just a few years older than she is, who says that he understands her and wants to be her best buddy, she’ll probably want to continue the relationship.”
Grooming is only one of many abuses that modern technology facilitates.
“An increasing problem is when the perpetrator asks young girls to send naked pictures of themselves from web cameras. It’s important to make the girls understand that these pictures can circulate for ever on the Internet and that there’s no way of knowing who will come across them.”
Even though many girls eventually understand that they have been deceived, that does not always mean that they want to end the contact.
“If they feel they have a good relationship with the abuser they may be willing to excuse the lies for what they believe is a romantic affair,” Alisdair Gillespie explains.
A strange circumstance the researchers have to deal with is the fact that many abusers carefully document every step they take.
“It’s quite bizarre but many perpetrators are involved in networks where they meet like-minded people, and exchange materials”, explains Marie Eneman.
The Internet is global, but legislation is national. Even within the EU there are a lot of differences: In the UK, for example, grooming has been an offence since 2003, but it is not yet criminalised in Sweden, even though there has been a lively discussion about the issue recently.
“And many Internet Service Providers in, for instance the UK and Sweden use filter systems to block access to web sites containing child pornography”, Marie Eneman explains. “But in the Netherlands, for instance, blocking sites is against the law. And different countries also have different views on what pornography is, what is and what isn’t criminal, and different ideas concerning age of consent. And some countries, such as Sweden, have a more developed use of technology than many other countries. This makes international cooperation quite difficult.”
New technology that reduces access to child pornography can be one important way of preventing abuse.
“But it is of even greater importance to understand that education, law and technology cannot be separated”, Alistair Gillespie says. “The teachers have to discuss the online world at school, and talk about what is, and what isn’t, OK to do.”
Photo: Johan Wingborg
Facts
Alisdair A. Gillespie, who will be Visiting Professor at the Department of Applied IT from October 2008 to the end of 2009, is a non practising barrister and lecturer in criminal law in the Department of Law at Leicester De Montfort Law School in the United Kingdom. His research is based on sex offences facilitated by Information and Communication Technologies, a subject on which he has published three books and several articles.
Since 2001 he has also been an advisor to the UK Government on issues relating to child abuse on the Internet. He is also a member of the national policing Legal Advisory Board on Internet and International Crimes against Children and has written the national policy manual for the national prosecution service.
As Visiting Professor, Alisdair Gillespie, together with doctoral student Marie Eneman, intends to work on projects relating to child protection on the Internet, examining in particular the legal and technological regulation of child pornography and the issue of grooming.
The two-year project is financed by FAS, the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research.
Alisdair Gillespie is interested in naval history, especially the history of the Royal Navy. He is also involved in helping the Royal National Lifeboat Institution which provides lifeboats throughout the United Kingdom and Eire. Other interests are all sorts of music, from classical to heavy-metal, cycling, and reading.
