Plan for new police unit to monitor Net

Date: 10/07/1997

By Leyla Linton

A CYBERPOLICE unit within Europol, plus self- regulation by service providers, is the best way to tackle crime on the Internet, according to Commission officials.

As ministers from the around the world met in Bonn this week to debate the regulation of the Internet, an aide to Audio-visual and Culture Commissioner Marcelino Oreja said it would be virtually impossible to create a law to control it, adding that it would be better to rely on existing national legislation in relevant areas.

The potential for illegal activity on the Internet is huge and concerns that it could be exploited have been fuelled by recent child-sex scandals.

In addition to the exchange of pornographic or paedophile material, the Internet is also fertile ground for those intent on inciting racial hatred or committing fraud.

But despite fears of crime, the recent ruling by the American supreme court which declared a decency law passed by the US Congress to be unconstitutional has highlighted the problems of drafting legislation in terms which satisfy the courts.

The Commission's favoured approach is to create a consensus among EU member states and Internet service providers on how they can monitor the network. Policing the international electronic web would be a matter for each country's judicial authorities coordinating their efforts with those of a special, dedicated unit in Europol tracking criminal activity.

Oreja's aide denied that the workload would be too great for such a unit, comparing its possible task to that already carried out by the American FBI. He added that it would be better to target the purveyors of illegal or harmful material on the Internet, rather than criminalise the users or rely on filtering.