Charlene Smith
South Africa’s policing and justice services are to begin putting pressure on Internet service providers to control paedophilia and child sex sites – including a demand that they provide details of users who log on to those sites if an investigation requires it.
And the South African Law Commission is recommending that all child pornography be outlawed.
South Africa is following the lead of the International Association of Prosecutors which has begun trailing paedophiles on Internet sites across the world and prosecuting users and abusers. In the United States FBI agents are assigned to track paedophiles by posing as children.
Prosecutors attending a forum at the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions last week saw an FBI detective display how paedophiles flocked to a site when he logged on pretending he was a 13-year-old girl interested in meeting older people.
A report by the International Association of Prosecutors shows that “chat channels and rooms, message boards, and electronic mail are also being used for another sinister purpose: paedophiles luring children for sex. Sometimes the paedophile lies about his age. Sometimes he seems to comfort the child who may be going through difficult times with his or her parents at home.
“Then, after the vulnerable child befriends his new acquaintance the discussion turns to sex and a meeting is arranged. Child sex abusers, 30 or 40 years old, are willing to travel thousands of miles for the opportunity to meet boys and girls 13 or 14 years old.”
When police begin searching a computer in one country, they often find the data being sought may be in a server in another country. Last year an international paedophile ring using the Internet was discovered with more than 200 members. Only 100 have been identified but the investigation and prosecution of the group continues across 12 countries.
South African prosecutors have suggested to the government that service providers be compelled to hold records of their clients for at least 12 months and to reveal them when an investigation is under way. Service providers that do not comply or are found to have sites that threaten the safety of children will be prosecuted.