Child porn still rife on Internet / Lack of authority to shut sites, legality of possession cited as problems

The Yomiuri Shimbun
April 20, 2008
Source: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080420TDY02304.htm

Only 300 of the 1,600 Web sites confirmed last year by the Internet Hotline Center to include child pornography have been closed in response to the center's requests, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

The fact that downloading child pornography from the Internet is not a punishable offense in Japan is considered a major factor behind the availability of such material.

Experts are calling for stricter regulation of such Web sites, while demanding the introduction of measures to block access to such sites.

The center entrusted by the National Police Agency to receive complaints and tips about objectionable material in cyberspace detected about 1,600 child porn Web sites last year. However, about 540 of those Web sites, one-third of the total, were connected to servers located overseas, so the center could not directly ask operators of those Web sites to shut them down.

Although the remaining sites were connected to servers within Japan, the center does not have the legal authority to force operators to close down their sites, even if it can identify the operators. Of the 500 sites the center actually asked be shut down, operators closed only 300. The remaining sites can still be accessed.

To make matters worse, even after such Web sites are closed down, similar sites are quickly launched.

Seiji Yoshikawa, deputy director of the Tokyo-based center, said, "I believe that the Web sites we have confirmed could be a small fraction of the actual figure."

In fact, numerous child porn Web sites claim to display "unexpurgated Lolita images." Once an image is posted on such sites, it is highly likely that the image could be copied by many people and widely distributed.

For example, despite a crackdown by the Nara prefectural police on a group of people selling pornographic images of about 100 girls in March 2005, copies of those images are still available on the Internet.

While many countries define watching child pornography as a crime, only those who sell, buy or transfer such images are punished under Japan's law banning child prostitution and child pornography. Those who download material onto computers or cell phones are regarded simply as being in possession and are not punished.

Lawmakers are currently discussing a revision of the law to penalize simple possession.

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Blocking access to sites

To counter the easy availability of child pornography on the Internet, many experts are calling for the introduction of a blocking system, which has been effectively used in such countries as Britain, Sweden and Denmark since 2004.

Blocking is a measure under which Internet service providers block online access to objectionable sites according to a child pornography blacklist compiled by the police or other concerned parties.

If the blocking system is introduced, Internet users will not be able to view blocked Web sites, including those using overseas servers.

In Sweden, where the system is successfully working, 30,000 attempts to access illegal sites are blocked per day.

"The blocking system can devastate operators of [harmful] Web sites," Keiji Goto, a lawyer well versed in the issue, told The Yomiuri Shimbun. "It is also expected to drastically reduce the distribution of pornographic images featuring children."

(Apr. 20, 2008)