Cyber Crime and Cyber Terrorism

CHAPTER
133
11
ICT as a protection tool 
against child exploitation
Mohammed Dastbaz, Edward Halpin
INTRODUCTION
Albert Einstein is quoted as saying: “It has become appallingly obvious that our 
technology has exceeded our humanity.” Indeed 2013 has been a year of significant 
revelations about the dominance of Information Communication Technologies in our 
lives. The dominance of mobile communication technologies, the 24/7 constantly 
connected lives we live in, and the shifting patterns of how we socialize, shop, learn, 
entertain, communicate or indeed how we diet and are ever more conscious about 
our health and wellbeing, points to what some would like to term the “third industrial 
revolution” (
Rifkin, 2011
).
The phenomenal advance of technology has meant concepts such as privacy 
and private information, for those billions of people who have ventured into the 
web of technology is nothing but a mirage. Revelations about security agencies 
around the world monitoring every digital move we make (from text messag-
ing to our tweets, Facebook conversations and even our shopping patterns) has 
confirmed that as individuals we have no right, and indeed very little if any pro-
tection, against these unwanted and unwarranted intrusions. The Guardian (16 
January 2014) reported that: “The National Security Agency has collected almost 
200 million text messages a day from across the globe, using them to extract data 
including location, contact networks and credit card details, according to top-
secret documents….”
Another growing concern in recent years has been issues around children’s safety 
on the global digital network. From “Cyber bullying” to children being exposed to 
violence and pornography, to the “net” being used as a channel for trafficking chil-
dren and other criminal activities, there is growing concern and challenges around 
how we can provide a safe digital environment for children.
A report published by “Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre” in UK in 2011 
stated that: “Ninety-nine percent of children 12-15 use the internet as 93% of 
8-11 years old and 75% of 5-7 years old” (
Munro, 2011
).
The report further highlights that a US survey reported 42% of young people age 
10-17 being exposed to on-line pornography in a one-year period and 66% of this 
was unwanted.

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