Internet report stresses need for ‘cyber-police’

Date: 17/04/1997

By Leyla Linton

MEPs will next week consider ways of combating extremism, paedophilia and deviant pornography on the Internet.

The European Parliament will debate a report on illegal and harmful content on the world-wide electronic communications network, drafted by the French Radical MEP Pierre Pradier.

The report warns that the Internet has become a new meeting place for paedophiles and can encourage certain forms of criminal behaviour.

Pradier claims it is “probable” that paedophiles who use virtual pornography (in which synthesised images of humans are used) may go on to attack children.

Only this month, a British man who had used Internet pornography was convicted of the rape of his daughters.

The report highlights the problems posed by the questionmarks over legal jurisdiction and the difficulties facing police in what is described as a “huge world-wide labyrinth” in which “censorship is virtually impossible”.

It points out that it is very difficult to trace users and block communications on the Internet.

Pradier calls on member states to tackle the problem by considering setting up a 'cyber-police' unit within the fledging policy agency Europol and defining a minimum number of common rules in their criminal law.

He stresses that an EU rather than a purely intergovernmental approach is necessary, arguing that while policing powers are a matter for member states, the Union cannot stand aside as they are bound up with the issue of civil liberties.

Pradier acknowledges that controlling communication on the Internet without imposing excessive restrictions on freedom of expression is far from easy.

The MEP, who describes himself as “quite liberal, not very moralistic”, says that, ultimately, Internet users have to take responsibility for themselves.

But he adds that although it is up to individuals to decide what to access, he is concerned about the protection of children and other vulnerable social groups.

In preparing the report, Pradier had to spend some time on the Internet researching sites. He said that little he had seen had surprised or shocked him. “I am an old man. I am not easily shocked, perhaps because I am a doctor,” he commented wryly. He added that finding pornographic sites was not as easy as many people thought. “You need to know the right search words,” he said.

The positive side of the Internet, already used by 50 million people is also highlighted in the report, which describes it as “a kind of living encyclopaedia with a far greater potential than that of the printed word” and a “Utopian dream” of a harmonious global human community which shares knowledge.

MEPs will vote on the draft report at their plenary session in Brussels next Thursday (24 April).