Cyber Crime and Cyber Terrorism

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CHAPTER 11
ICT as a protection tool against child exploitation
In a report by “E-Crime,” The House of Commons Home Affair Committee we 
read: “We are deeply concerned that it is still too easy for people to access inap-
propriate online content, particularly indecent images of children… There is no 
excuse for complacency. We urge those responsible to take stronger action to re-
move such content. We reiterate our recommendation that the Government should 
draw up a mandatory code of conduct with internet companies to remove material 
which breaches acceptable behavioural standards… [it is] important that children 
learn about staying safe online as it is that they learn about crossing the road safely” 
(E-Crime House of Commons, 2013).
While there is much to do to develop the legal framework around what can be 
blocked, or not, and to put the necessary technologies in place, the Web itself is 
rapidly developing and new technological challenges emerge. Time magazine 
(November 2013) produced a special report about what has been termed as the “Deep 
Web.” Like the story of the Internet the story of the “Deep Web” is also associated 
with the US military and research done by scientist associated with the US Naval 
Research Laboratory aimed at “Hiding Routing Information.” The report states that 
what was being developed: “laid out the technical features of a system whereby us-
ers could access the Internet without divulging their identities to any Web server or 
routers they might interact with along the way.”
The “Deep Web” as the report worryingly suggests is where organized crime or 
terror networks work with masked identities and it is also where drugs, false pass-
ports, sophisticated SPAM, child prosopography and other criminal activities are or-
ganized with untraceable currency like “Bitcoin” (also see Chapter 9).
So given the complexity of the legal frame work and the ever increasing technical 
challenges what are the key issues that we need to tackle not only to provide a safer digital 
world for the children but also use the technology itself to help us develop the solutions.