| Who's Online | There are currently, 6 guest(s) and 0 member(s) that are online.
You are Anonymous user. You can register for free by clicking here |
|
| Languages | Select Interface Language:
|
|
| Login | | Don't have an account yet? You can create one. As a registered user you have some advantages like theme manager, comments configuration and post comments with your name. |
|
 | | Child Advocacy:
| Posted by enigma on Thursday, May 28 @ 19:04:58 CEST (246 reads)
Last month’s ‘appeal’ to identify technologies that could prevent child abduction has moved forward rapidly
In a letter published last month, prompted by the disappearance of
Madeleine McCann, design engineer Peter Fitzsimmons challenged Eureka
readers to come up with a device to track lost children. Several
readers have written with suggestions – two RFID-based ideas, one of
which is in production, are highlighted here.
At the same time, two competing satellite-based systems – one British, one French – have also been launched recently.
Maidstone-based Blue Tree Services launched its OurKids child tracking
system in the UK and Ireland earlier this year. The device comes in two
parts: children wear the Blueranger unit, supplied with a belt similar
to a money belt or with a pocket that can be attached to any item.
Parents track their child’s movements through BlueMap software either
on the internet or via a hand-held PDA. The latter shows its location
as well as that of the monitored units.
The portable units use GPS and the cell phone network to send
positioning information – accurate within 4m – to secure servers. These
then relay information, which shows the unit location within the UK or
Europe.
The company says: “Although it has been possible for people to carry
alarms for some time, these were either linked to a physical location
or allowed for only single location requests. With OurKids, continuous
tracking avoids the problems associated with not having a ‘position
fix’ at critical moments – there is always a ‘breadcrumb trail’.”
The units incorporate a movement sensor, which detects whether it is
being worn –and not left in backpack at a friend’s house – or if it has
suffered a shock such as a fall.
Parents can also set up boundaries through GPS mapping. The system
alerts them if the child moves beyond a predetermined area. Height can
also be set as a parameter – perhaps to ensure the child isn’t taking
part in a dangerous Quidditch match? Other features include an
emergency alarm, which lets children tell parents if they are in
trouble.
Managing director Mike Smuts said: “We have seen a huge demand for this
product from across all sectors of society. This is a robust and easy
to wear product. It’s good to know that parents can allow their
children a little more freedom and at the same time manage their
independence.”
French firm Car Telematics has a long waiting list for its Kiditel
device according to the BBC. It will be released in the UK soon, and
can be put in a pocket or bag. The GPS tracking device beams satellite
images of a child’s location to the home computer. It has an SOS
button, which sends an SMS and position coordinates to a predefined
mobile number if the child is in trouble. A parent can call the child
back to find out what the problem is.
Development director Franck Spinelli told the BBC that the Kiditel was popular with parents of young children.
Neither of these devices would prevent a kidnapping, and there would be
nothing to stop the abductor disposing of the device once found on the
child. However, both systems could give police vital information on the
child’s whereabouts before he or she went missing.
Reader Paul Clarke proposed an RFID solution, which could overcome
these difficulties. Citing the current level of integration of CCTV
systems, he says: “If there was a similar initiative to link the RFID
systems used by shops to catch shoplifters, it would be possible to
search for an RFID tag that could be surgically implanted under a
child’s skin or inserted into the fabric of their clothing.
“Potentially this could be an international initiative that would mean
that if an abductor attempted to take a chipped child into a store that
subscribed to the service, store detectives would be notified and by
cross-referencing with CCTV footage one could determine the identity of
the individual [abducting a child].”
Surgically implanting an RFID chip under a child’s skin seems a little
Orwellian, though putting it into the fabric of clothes seems more
acceptable. Are parents likely to go to such extremes to ensure kids
are safe, or is it a step too far?
However, as reader Roger Bamford pointed out, one US firm has already
designed a human-implantable RFID chip. VeriChip has developed a
passive RFID microchip, inserted under the skin by injection, which
contains a unique 16-digit identifier. The number on the chip – which
can be read with a proprietary scanner – could be used to access
medical records, or determine whether someone has the authority to
enter a secure area, the company says.
Verichip has also designed wearable active RFID chips, designed for use
within care homes or hospital wards. The chips sound an alarm if
patients – for instance, those with Alzheimer’s – leave a designated
area. It can even lock an exit as a patient approaches it. The chips
can also be used to prevent the abduction of newborns by raising the
alarm if the baby is removed from the ward.
www.verichipcorp.com/
www.bluetreeservices.co.uk
www.kiditel.com/en/
| | (Read More... | 1 comment | Child Advocacy | Score: 5) |
|
Child Advocacy: Now, a spy software to identify online Pedophiles
| Posted by enigma on Thursday, May 28 @ 19:02:26 CEST (379 reads)
A computer program that can identify
paedophiles, who pretend to be children on the Internet, is being
developed by scientists at Lancaster University.
By analysing language and syntax used online, the new technology can
reveal if an adult is masquerading as a child as part of the victim
“grooming” process.
The scheme, known as Project Isis, will also be able to keep track
of secret code words used by pedophiles as file names for child
pornography.
“The main technique is something called authorship attribution.
Research has been done which indicates that there are differences in
how people of a particular age group write, the Telegraph quoted
Professor Awais Rashid, of Lancaster University, as saying.
“You can distinguish when someone is 25 when they are claiming to be 14, for example.
“The project uses a lot of artificial intelligence and a lot of
algorithms. We are using language analysis tools to identify someone
who is masquerading as a child, and therefore identify people who may
be a risk to children.
“We are looking at being able to monitor traffic in file-sharing
networks to try to identify core distributors, who are of interest to
law enforcement agencies because they have access to children and are
preparing photographs of these children in abusive situations.
“Pedophiles use very specific ways of marking these files and searching for them.
“To the untrained eye they can look like innocent searches but with
our analysis you can isolate them and study how they change,” Rashid
added.
A first prototype system has already being devised and is being tested on non-sensitive data.
The next step of the three-year project will be to use the software
on real-life pedophile material provided by police and other agencies.
If it proves effective, Project Isis could raise Internet privacy
concerns. For it to work in practice, it would require a wide range of
Internet sites such as chat rooms and peer-to-peer networks to be
monitored for tell-tale paedophile language.
“We are setting up a stakeholder ethics group of internet service
providers, users and other groups who may have concerns about the
ethics of monitoring,” Rashid said. (ANI)
| | (Read More... | 2 comments | Child Advocacy | Score: 5) |
|
Child Advocacy: Largest Porn Ring Bust in Texas and Worldwide
| Posted by enigma on Tuesday, May 19 @ 22:45:34 CEST (401 reads)
Huge Kid Porn Ring Busted
Underneath a monstrous heap of electronic kiddie porn, federal
prosecutors have uncovered a suburban Texas couple, three foreign
webmasters, and thousands of customers worldwide who left behind a
trail of credit card charges totaling $1 million.Federal
prosecutors, who watched with glee as a grand jury handed down an
87-count indictment against the peddlers Thursday, say they've never
had such a big case.
U.S. Attorney
for the Northern District of Texas Paul Coggins said the case is a
major step forward in a high-stakes fight against the people who
sexually abuse children and sell images of the abuse on the Web.
Catching the webmaster, he said, makes finding their victims a real
possibility. "Where these webmasters are establishing sites could well be where these scenes of sexual abuse take place," Coggins said. Prosecutors
say the children in this case are 4-12 years old. "These kids are being
scarred for life somewhere, (and) someone needs to be prosecuting."
The indictment charges Fort Worth's Thomas and Janice Reedy with
operating a commercial kid porn ring from their home. According to the Texas Secretary of State, the Reedys incorporated their company, called Landslide, Inc., on Feb. 13, 1997.
Prosecutors say Landslide
acted as the "gatekeeper" between one Russian and two Indonesian
webmasters who supplied customers with pornographic images of children
in exchange for US$29.95 per site. Landslide supplied the
password-protected access to the sites –- including
childrenforcedtoporn.com, childrape.com, and childrenofgod.com –- and
handled the credit card transactions.
Those charges left
behind a handy trail of evidence for prosecutors, who say the Reedys
made $1,111,266 in less than a year. They kept a third of the profits
and sent the rest to the foreign webmasters. People close to the case said the size of the Reedys' business was enormous.
"The extent of the kiddie porn business, the scope of the customers,
(and the fact that) they are spread across the states and across the
globe, shocked me," Coggins said. Lead prosecutor Terri Moore agreed, calling the scope of the operation "absolutely frightening." "I'm a seasoned prosecutor and I was appalled, I was floored," she said. Parry Aftab, director of anti-child pornography group Cyberangels,
called Landslide a major commercial scheme, setting it apart from most
child pornography on the Internet, which is not commercial.
"This
is a very, very important case," she said. "For child pornography, this
is as important as the World Trade Center bombing." Without
commenting specifically on Landslide, Aftab said commercial rings are
extremely dangerous and even deadly for the children who are targeted.
"They are particularly heinous," she said. "Many of them kill the
children after they abuse them. They use foreign children, from Eastern
Europe and South America. It is the kind of world you can't imagine." The
Reedys, who are being held in federal prison until a detention hearing
next week, have been forced to take down their alleged kid porn, and
most of the sites they once operated are now out of service.
But
they're still using the landslide.com site to assert their innocence. "We have committed no illegal act, and are confident to be found innocent of any such charges," the site reads.
They're
even soliciting funds for their defense on the site. "Please buy an
Adult Check ID, and show your support to fight this injustice!" their
message reads, with a link to a form where customers can offer up their
credit digits. They also offer several links to the paid adult
pornography sites that are still running, even as they are being held
in jail. [Editor's note: Cybernet Ventures Inc., the owner/operator of
Adult Check, says it is in no way associated with Landslide, Inc., and
is not supporting the Reedys' defense.] If found guilty, the
Reedys face stiff penalties for each of the 87 counts handed down,
which carries with them a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment and
a $250,000 fine.
The Russian webmaster is charged with 12
counts of the same crimes, while the Indonesian webmasters face 16
counts each. U.S. prosecutors are hoping to extradite the accused and
try them in Dallas. Prosecutors hope the Landslide bust will
signal an end to the relative ease with which people have been peddling
the illegal material over the Internet, but say they know the problem
is not likely to go away anytime soon. "It's a major case. It's
like we caught the head of three (drug) cartels. And it will have
repercussions," said Coggins. "But it would be extremely naïve to say
this is the end of it. It's huge and there are hundreds of these
webmasters out there."
| | (Read More... | 13 comments | Child Advocacy | Score: 0) |
|
| Posted by enigma on Tuesday, May 19 @ 22:38:16 CEST (170 reads)
Huge Kid Porn Ring Busted
Editor's note: This story was updated on April 18, after its original publication on April 14.
Underneath a monstrous heap of electronic kiddie porn, federal
prosecutors have uncovered a suburban Texas couple, three foreign
webmasters, and thousands of customers worldwide who left behind a
trail of credit card charges totaling $1 million. Federal
prosecutors, who watched with glee as a grand jury handed down an
87-count indictment against the peddlers Thursday, say they've never
had such a big case. U.S. Attorney
for the Northern District of Texas Paul Coggins said the case is a
major step forward in a high-stakes fight against the people who
sexually abuse children and sell images of the abuse on the Web.
Catching the webmaster, he said, makes finding their victims a real
possibility. "Where these webmasters are establishing sites could well be where these scenes of sexual abuse take place," Coggins said. Prosecutors
say the children in this case are 4-12 years old. "These kids are being
scarred for life somewhere, (and) someone needs to be prosecuting."
The indictment charges Fort Worth's Thomas and Janice Reedy with
operating a commercial kid porn ring from their home. According to the Texas Secretary of State, the Reedys incorporated their company, called Landslide, Inc., on Feb. 13, 1997. Prosecutors say Landslide
acted as the "gatekeeper" between one Russian and two Indonesian
webmasters who supplied customers with pornographic images of children
in exchange for US$29.95 per site. Landslide supplied the
password-protected access to the sites –- including
childrenforcedtoporn.com, childrape.com, and childrenofgod.com –- and
handled the credit card transactions. Those charges left
behind a handy trail of evidence for prosecutors, who say the Reedys
made $1,111,266 in less than a year. They kept a third of the profits
and sent the rest to the foreign webmasters. People close to the case said the size of the Reedys' business was enormous.
"The extent of the kiddie porn business, the scope of the customers,
(and the fact that) they are spread across the states and across the
globe, shocked me," Coggins said. Lead prosecutor Terri Moore agreed, calling the scope of the operation "absolutely frightening." "I'm a seasoned prosecutor and I was appalled, I was floored," she said. Parry Aftab, director of anti-child pornography group Cyberangels,
called Landslide a major commercial scheme, setting it apart from most
child pornography on the Internet, which is not commercial. "This
is a very, very important case," she said. "For child pornography, this
is as important as the World Trade Center bombing." Without
commenting specifically on Landslide, Aftab said commercial rings are
extremely dangerous and even deadly for the children who are targeted.
"They are particularly heinous," she said. "Many of them kill the
children after they abuse them. They use foreign children, from Eastern
Europe and South America. It is the kind of world you can't imagine." The
Reedys, who are being held in federal prison until a detention hearing
next week, have been forced to take down their alleged kid porn, and
most of the sites they once operated are now out of service. But
they're still using the landslide.com site to assert their innocence. "We have committed no illegal act, and are confident to be found innocent of any such charges," the site reads.
They're
even soliciting funds for their defense on the site. "Please buy an
Adult Check ID, and show your support to fight this injustice!" their
message reads, with a link to a form where customers can offer up their
credit digits. They also offer several links to the paid adult
pornography sites that are still running, even as they are being held
in jail. [Editor's note: Cybernet Ventures Inc., the owner/operator of
Adult Check, says it is in no way associated with Landslide, Inc., and
is not supporting the Reedys' defense.] If found guilty, the
Reedys face stiff penalties for each of the 87 counts handed down,
which carries with them a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment and
a $250,000 fine. The Russian webmaster is charged with 12
counts of the same crimes, while the Indonesian webmasters face 16
counts each. U.S. prosecutors are hoping to extradite the accused and
try them in Dallas. Prosecutors hope the Landslide bust will
signal an end to the relative ease with which people have been peddling
the illegal material over the Internet, but say they know the problem
is not likely to go away anytime soon. "It's a major case. It's
like we caught the head of three (drug) cartels. And it will have
repercussions," said Coggins. "But it would be extremely naïve to say
this is the end of it. It's huge and there are hundreds of these
webmasters out there."
| | (comments? | Score: 0) |
|
Child Advocacy: Child porn ring busted, 27 face charges
| Posted by enigma on Saturday, June 30 @ 17:25:19 CEST (10256 reads)
CHICAGO - Charges were announced Wednesday
against 27 people in the United States, Canada, Australia and Great
Britain in connection with an Internet chat room allegedly used to
trade child porn and view real-time child molestation.The accused allegedly exchanged videos of live molestation, or what authorities are calling “molestation on demand.”U.S.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who appeared at a news conference in
Chicago, said seven victims were identified, one of them less than 18
months old
Gonzales said the images, sent through a peer-to-peer network, represented "the worst imaginable forms of child pornography."Immigration
and Customs Enforcement agents infiltrated the ring during the last
year and began making arrests last week, the sources told NBC.Thirteen of the suspects are charged in the United States.The
Associated Press said that arrests were made in Arizona, Florida,
Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New York, North Carolina and
Tennessee.
The chat room, called “Kiddypics and Kiddyvids,” allowed users to share pictures and video. Julie
Myers, assistant secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
appeared with Gonzales and said the trade in child pornography has
expanded with the emergence of new technology.There is more "home-grown child pornography" she said, and more new victims, with video and photographs shared on-line. ICE took part in the investigation because the case involved cross-border crimes.
| | (Read More... | 1554 comments | Child Advocacy | Score: 5) |
|
| | |
