Using Best Practice Codes to Reduce Child
Exploitation in the Online Environment
We believe the time is ripe to look for new and
innovative ways in which the more responsible members of the adult online
industry can be enlisted to help stop child pornography and child exploitation
online and offline.
It seems to us that the creation of a new .xxx Top
Level Domain offers the possibility of establishing specially crafted
“best practice codes” which would apply to all web sites utilizing the
.xxx domain and which could help to protect children in a number of different
ways.
The online issues which any best practice codes should
address need to include:
·
Child pornography
·
Pseudo child pornography
·
Sexual exploitation of children
e.g. prior to publication requiring proof of the age of any models or actors used
in any depictions
·
SPAM
·
Other forms of marketing which are
likely to find their way into children’s hands or on to their computer screens
·
Fraudulent headers in promotional
e-mails
·
Fraudulent or misleading meta
tags, keywords and listings with search engines
·
Typo-squatting intended to attract
children
·
Misleading domain names or
keywords intended to attract children
·
The use of terms which are likely
to attract those seeking child pornography
·
Covert re-dialers and similar
schemes
·
Voluntary ratings and listing with
the filtering and parental control technologies
·
Browser hijacking
·
Slammed home page changes
·
Spyware and adware, pop-ups and
pop-unders
·
The use of peer2peer and Freenet
as distribution mechanisms
John Carr
Internet Adviser
UK Children’s Charities’ Coalition for Internet
Safety