British law enforcement and the FBI are said to be preparing a drive to pressure credit card companies to revoke card accounts used to buy child porn on the Internet.
At least one British lawmaker has demanded such revocation. Member of Parliament Judy Mallaber, from Derbyshire, wants the government to guarantee credit card companies are told whenever a customer is convicted of buying online child porn.
"Child porn images on the Internet can only be there in huge numbers because people are paying for them," Mallaber told reporters. "If someone is convicted of downloading child porn images using a credit card, or has used their card to help set up a Website, then the courts ought to be required to notify the credit card company. I would expect the company to withdraw the card, and would put pressure on them to do so."
The pressure started to come after pedophiles were discovered to be using a Website called Landslide Productions to download child porn onto computers, with subscribers said to give credit card details and receive e-mails with user logins and passwords, according to several reports in the British press.
This tactic is said to be one of a number of approaches international law enforcement is pursuing to roust the online child porn world, approaches said to include targeting organized crime gang assets when they're found to run child porn Websites; and, monitoring Internet chat rooms to catch pedophiles before they can "groom their victims over the Web," as one report put it.
American, British, Canadian, and Australian law enforcement are said to be monitoring the Internet 24/7, poised to warn chat room participants if dialogues become especially sensitive or dangerous.
Other techniques may include setting up Websites that look like child porn sites but would give users not images but warnings that they could face 10 years behind bars, according to The Scotsman.
These plans were a key discussion topic at the Virtual Global Task Force's meeting in London June 9. "We all need to keep thinking of new ways to tackle these types of offenders," said British National Crime Squad assistant chief constable Jim Gamble, who chairs the VGTF, set up amidst Operation Ore.
