Estimate
-or-
FACTOID? | "estimates that there are more than 200,000 Web sites selling child pornography!" |
What? | "The great thing about this coalition is that it gives us for the first time an independent entity to decide the validity of a particular image - and if it is child porn or not - and gives us actionable information," says Joshua Peirez, group executive of global public policy at MasterCard in Purchase, N.Y." |
Comment made by:
Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children! |
| 3-16-2006 National:
A siege on the child-porn market: Titans of finance join forces to try to thwart online trafficking in illicit images. |
.NEW YORK – Some of America's most powerful financial institutions have a new target - and it doesn't involve making money. For the first time, titans such as American Express, Bank of America, and Citigroup will join forces to try to thwart the use of credit cards and other financial tools to buy child pornography. A group of 18 corporate giants intends to share information, issue cease-and-desist orders to offenders, and try to expand its reach to almost every financial institution that matters. The aim: to snuff out the commercial spread of the smut by 2008.
"People say it's crazy, but I don't think it is," says Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which will act as clearinghouse for the effort. "If we can eliminate the credit-card use, the third-party payments, or any of the illegal mechanisms, we can make it a whole lot harder."
By many estimates, child pornography has mushroomed into a giant business, attracting organized crime. At least 200,000 websites sell such images, according to Mr. Allen, and rake in from $20 billion to $30 billion a year. "Its use is absolutely exploding," says Allen, whose organization each week fields as many as 1,500 tips on illicit sites.
"We have no illusions we will make the problem go away," he says. "But if we can get the focus back on hard-core pedophiles, [the problem] will be a much smaller magnitude, and we'll be able to use more traditional means to track [pedophiles] and bring [them] to justice." [snip]
"The ability to collaborate and share best practices is the best way to eradicate this particular problem," says Christine Elliott, American Express spokeswoman. Individual credit-card companies have tried in the past to crack down on the use of their cards for child-porn purchases. Three years ago, Visa International hired an outside firm, staffed by former government lawmen, to search 1 million pages on the Internet every day for child pornography that also had the Visa logo. When a site was discovered, the firm turned over the information to law-enforcement officials working out of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
At the time, 80 percent of the 400 websites it found to be selling child porn had either been shut down by authorities or had their Visa privileges terminated, Visa told the Monitor. Visa is still engaged in that effort, now searching 11 million Internet pages a day. "We use a very sophisticated search engine, and when it raises a red flag we have to look at it and work with law enforcement in a coordinated response," says Rhonda Bentz, a Visa vice president in Washington. "We don't want to disclose everything that we do," she adds, "because we don't want the bad guys to know what we're doing. They are an agile community."
One problem for the card companies is that it is illegal for anyone other than law-enforcement officials to look at child porn. This has made it difficult to proceed with their own internal controls. "The great thing about this coalition is that it gives us for the first time an independent entity to decide the validity of a particular image - and if it is child porn or not - and gives us actionable information," says Joshua Peirez, group executive of global public policy at MasterCard in Purchase, N.Y.
..more..
: by Ron Scherer | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
| 6-12-2006 National:
Credit Cards and Kiddie Porn |
.Child pornography, once found only in dark back alleyways, has become big business. The Internet changed all that. Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, estimates that there are more than 200,000 Web sites selling child pornography, which has turned into a $20 billion to $30 billion-ayear business. "Its use is absolutely exploding," Allen told The Christian Science Monitor recently.
Now, a group of 18 financial giants are embarking on a major effort to help federal agents follow the money. "The credit-card system is one of the keys," said U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. "It's all about money, money, money." Shelby originated the idea that eventually became the Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography. Founding members of the coalition include Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover Financial Services, America Online, Bank of America, Chase, Citigroup, e-gold, First Data Corporation, First National Bank of Omaha, Microsoft, PayPal, Wells Fargo and Yahoo! Inc.
..more..
: by The Ledger Editorial See also Coalition takes charge to wipe out child porn
| 200,000 Websites Selling Child Porn -AND- Identifying child porn |
Often our readers report something and we question whether to look further, but here research turned up troubling issues: 1) The number of websites reported to be selling child porn; 2) The identification of what is or isn't child porn.
Before we begin let it be known that we would like nothing better than to see child porn eliminated. However, how that is done is important. For instance, recidivism could be elimninated for all crime types easily, lock them up and throw away the key; solved, at least until society goes broke paying for prisions.
So, eliminating the websites that sell child porn is a great start, or is it? In August of 2005 the following appeared in National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) News release: "The exact number of web sites is difficult to determine. A 2002 report by ECPAT International and the Bangkok Post, estimated that 100,000 child pornography web sites existed on the Internet in 2001." Ecpat International, June 2004, got that "100,000 websites" number from The U.S Customs Service estimates that there are more than 100,000 web sites offering child pornography – which is illegal world wide. Apparently that came from Red Herring Magazine, 1/18/02. That article is no longer available. So, what we have is 100,000 is a guesstimate nothing more. Then comes the quantum leap in June of 2006 "estimates that there are more than 200,000 Web sites selling child pornography." Still nothing but an estimate, no study no facts so in our world that is a FACTOID!
Considering that "100,000 wesites" had previously been estimated based upon something, why have they not been eliminated? Because, NEW STUDY REVEALS CHILD PORNOGRAPHY NOT A CRIME IN MOST COUNTRIES. The study is at the top of that article. I think that pretty much says, they will never be eliminated totally.
That is why the "Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography" was formed, to go after those who purchase child porn using their credit cards. That is why we found the first news article so interesting:
"We [Visa] use a very sophisticated search engine, and when it raises a red flag we have to look at it and work with law enforcement in a coordinated response," says Rhonda Bentz ...
One problem for the card companies is that it is illegal for anyone other than law-enforcement officials to look at child porn.
The great thing about this coalition is that it gives us for the first time an independent entity to decide the validity of a particular image - and if it is child porn or not ...
What more needs to be said? So, if someone is arrested for buying child porn identified by one of the credit card companines, then someone at the credit card company should also be arrested. Right? Two for the price of one.
Maybe they have deputized Credit Card company employees like they did in the Dateline sting?
What is Child Pornography? NCMEC explains.
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