Internet child porn and other cybercrime is high on the agenda at the Council of Europe, where Swiss officials attending the conference say a world convention on cybercrime would help countries improve policing of the Net.
The COE’s Cybercrime Convention treaty is being called the first to hit cybercrime running, with COE members plus countries like the United States, Canada, and Japan helping them work on the treaty over the past four years before it came into force in July.
“This treaty deals with issues like child pornography and fraud,” said Swiss Coordination Unit for Cybercrime Control (Cyco) Eva Bollmann, who represents Switzerland at the COE conference. “Its main objective is to pursue a common policy aimed at protecting society against cybercrime.”
Thirty countries have signed the treaty including Switzerland, but that was the easy part, according to Swiss media: only seven have ratified the pact, and Switzerland itself has yet to debate ratification.
COE conference organizers are reported hoping that European and non-European countries alike sign and ratify the pact as soon as possible. Bollmann said the convention should become a significant instrument by giving signing countries the right to mutual assistance in fighting computer crime.
"It is important for all countries to work together to combat child pornography," Adult Sites Against Child Pornography executive director Joan Irvine said about the COE conference. "One of the problems with apprehending people who produce and distribute child pornography is they are located in many countries and until recently the various law enforcement agencies had not worked together. This has limited their effectiveness."
Switzerland is one country that faces a problem even if its parliament ratifies the treaty. Bollmann told reporters a national referendum on ratification could be forced. But she also said Switzerland can’t fight child porn and other computer crime alone. “To fight effectively against Internet crime, we have to exchange know-how about the latest technologies with other countries,” she told reporters. “We’re facing a global problem… so it’s important to work closely with other [world] cybercrime units.”
Over 180 delegates from private and government agencies as well as law enforcement are believed attending the three-day COE meeting, with officials saying in advance world action was vital to keep cybercriminals from building cybernetworks that become more and more difficult for police to track.
“The aim is to draw attention at the highest political level to the fact that the fight against cybercrime should be strengthened, as computer-dependent societies become increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks,” their statement said in part.
Switzerland, in fact, created Cyco in early 2003 as a special bureau devoted solely to policing the Net for cybercrime. The bureau has since investigated hundreds of complaints tied to Web content and criminal activity. They have eight analysts working exclusively on monitoring suspicious Websites, checking for links or references to Switzerland, and then determining whether a crime is involved.
Those include over 300 dossiers of evidence, most of which concerned child porn and were turned over to the appropriate authorities for further investigation, according to a Swiss press report.
"If the focus is CP, I am confused about what the group in Switzerland is doing as there are existing hotlines in most of the EC countries that accept reports of and research child pornography and abuse," Irvine said. "These hotlines already work with law enforcement. Most of these hotlines belong to INHOPE.org – International Hotline Providers of the EC. I am glad to see that Switzerland has recognized the need for such a hotline - they can learn a lot about such operations from INHOPE member hotlines; some of which has been in existence since 1997."
