Romania tackles child porn with software

As the Reuters agency reports Romania adopted a new computer system to tackle Internet pornography, which officials fear may rise after the country joined the European Union this year.

They say growing labour migration and easier customs controls will likely encourage the exploitation of children in the southeastern European country, which the United Nations already considers a top source of human trafficking.

"The system was implemented today and we will start inserting facts in the database as soon as possible," Virgil Spiridon, head of Romanian police's cyber-crime unit, told reporters at a news conference.

He told Reuters: "We believe Romania will become a source of minors taken to other countries to produce child pornography."

Romania is the third country in Europe, after Italy and Britain, to implement the Microsoft CETS 2.0 system, which offers a database for information on suspect Web sites and potential perpetrators.

More than one in 10 Romanians has left the country to seek higher wages since the fall of communism in 1989. Many migrants leave their children behind in the care of relatives, neighbours or the state.

"With Romanian parents working abroad, leaving their children to be educated by their grandparents ... (the children) are very sensitive as potential targets for cyber-pornography," Vahe Torossian, Microsoft's president for central and eastern Europe, told Reuters.

About 1.2 million children are trafficked annually worldwide, and overall trafficking, including adults, is roughly a $10 billion-a-year-industry, the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children says.



Submitted by admin on Mon, 2007-10-29 13:34.
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