Cyber Crime and Cyber Terrorism

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CHAPTER 11
ICT as a protection tool against child exploitation
CONCLUSIONS
The advance of technology and society brings with it, as has always been the case, 
both threats and opportunities; in discovering fire and using it to benefit there has 
always been the opportunity of threat, by use or malign use. We can extend this anal-
ogy to technology today, but there is clearly a need to address the ubiquity of access 
and mechanisms of application that technology provides. The United Nations, as a 
voice for the international community, articulates the rights to both information and 
to privacy, with an over-riding right to protection. This includes the right to infor-
mation and awareness about issues, an issue addressed by 
Hick and Halpin (2001)
, 
amongst others. Whilst the case study presented earlier illustrates the technical chal-
lenges, and the equally complex social issues, that need to be addressed simultane-
ously in addressing the technical challenges that have to be addressed; the case study 
illuminates the issues and might viewed as an exemplar of the many other technical 
issues that require solutions when looking at emerging technologies child exploita-
tion and possible use of ICT for protection. The conclusion of the study notes that
Technological systems to address the issue of cross-border trafficking must be 
viewed as only part of the solution. For them to be effective, the necessary legal 
and institutional arrangements must be put in place and political and adminis-
trative arrangements must exist to make them work.
(
Lannon and Halpin, 2013
)
This final point on the legal frameworks, cross-border working, and an explicit 
application of the international conventions, such as the UN Convention on the 
Rights of the Child, seem at this stage the most difficult to address and yet the most 
important, if there is to be an effective adoption of protection of children; the technol-
ogy can offer answers, the legislation and political will must facilitate it.
REFERENCES
E-Crime, 2013. House of Commons Home Affair Committee, July 2013..
Hick, S., Halpin, E., 2001. Children’s rights and the Internet. Ann. Am. Acad. Polit. Social 
Sci. 56–70, May.
Lannon, J., Halpin, E., 2013. Responding to Cross-Border Trafficking in South Asia: An 
Analysis of the Feasibility of a Technologically Enabled Missing Children Alert System. 
Plan International, Bangkok.
Munro, E.R., 2011. The Protection of Children On-line: A Brief Scoping Review to Identify 
Vulnerable Groups. Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre, Bedford Way, London, August 
2011.
OECD—Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry—Committee for Information, 
Computer and Communications Policy, 2011. The Protection of Children Online—Risks 
Faced By Children Online and Policies to Protect Them, May 2011.
Rifkin, J., 2011. The Third Industrial Revolution; How Lateral Power is Transforming Energy, 
the Economy, and the World. Palgrave Macmillan, USA.

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