Child Pornography (Hansard, 14 February 2003)

§ Margaret Moran
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures he will take to require credit card companies to remove credit cards from those breaking their contract with such companies by viewing child pornography on the net. [97762]

§ Hilary Benn
Normally it will not be apparent from the information received by a card issuer that a transaction relates to illegal business. However, within the confines of banking law, where a card issuer is alerted to the fact that an offence has been committed by a cardholder, they will take appropriate action under the terms and conditions applying to the use of its card.
The Government do not at this time consider that removing all credit card, debit card, and other non card based forms of payment facilities from an individual convicted of such an offence is the most cost effective or practical way of combating illegal or child abuse images on line.

§ Margaret Moran
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures he will take to require internet service providers to monitor their services to prevent viewing of child pornography on the net. [97763]

§ Hilary Benn
Under European e-commerce legislation, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) may not be held liable for unlawful material that they unknowingly transmit, store or host on behalf of their customers. There is also a requirement not to place general monitoring obligations on intermediary service providers, and as such there will be no legislative requirement for United Kingdom ISP's to undertake monitoring of their services for child pornography.
However, if an ISP is warned of illegal material on a website that they host but fails to take the appropriate action by removing or disabling access to the material in question, they will be liable for prosecution.
With regards to sites which host child pornography, the Government supports the work of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), an industry funded body which allows anyone to report the presence of images of child abuse anywhere in the world. The Foundation determines whether the reported website carries potentially illegal material and takes steps to have access denied to the site. The Foundation passes details of illegal material to the relevant law enforcement agencies to initiate action against the originators. If the originators are abroad, the Foundation passes the report to sister hotlines abroad and to the National Criminal Intelligence Services (NCIS) who liaise with enforcement agencies of the countries concerned.
The Government continues to seek to revise and improve the mechanisms and processes for the reporting and removing of illegal material hosted on the web, for example through the work of the Home Secretary's Task Force on Child Protection on the Internet.
The taskforce, established in March 2001, involves a partnership of child welfare organisations, the internet industry, government, the police and others working towards finding solutions to make the internet a safer place for children, and in January 2003 launched good 102W practice models and guidance for the internet industry on a range of services including web based services dealing with adult content.

§ Margaret Moran
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures he is taking to require internet service providers to end the use of privacy buttons on e-groups to enable better identification and prosecution of those using child pornography material on the Net. [97764]

§ Hilary Benn
E-Groups enable a great many people to communicate with others with similar interests conveniently and if necessary privately. It is true that this facility, like any other, can be misused, but to require that all e-groups be open would merely displace, not end, the exchange of indecent images of children, and lessen the scope for perfectly legitimate use.
The Government continues to seek to revise and improve the mechanisms and processes for the reporting and removing of illegal material hosted on the web, in particular through the work of the Home Secretary's Task Force on Child Protection on the Internet, which includes the police, the industry, child protection agencies, MPs and others.