The increasing use of the internet means that child pornography can be viewed and distributed
at any time The children depicted in those images and
videos, they are being revictimized every time that content is being reshared. It's
horrific.
The numbers too, are shocking.
This graph shows the reports of child sexual abuse material sent from around the world
to one central NGO over the past decade.
The spread of child sexual abuse images is a real problem in Germany too
And there are factors making it particularly difficult for German authorities to tackle
the problem.
In this video we're going to talk about some of the reasons why Germany is losing the fight
against pedophiles on the internet - and what the country could do to catch up.
Technology is changing fast. It's never been easier to share, store and hide massive amounts
of data.
Millions of images. Hours and hours of video. Child sexual abuse material.
Every time there's a new piece of technology or tool that's out there, it's going to be
exploited for nefarious purposes.
John Shehan works at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The US-based
NGO takes reports of child sexual abuse material from the intangible world of the internet
- and tracks it to a physical location so that real-world authorities can step in.
Every device connected to the internet has an IP address - a unique number that can be
used to follow and track a user’s journey online.
When an internet provider suspects someone is using or spreading child sexual abuse material,
they can forward the IP address to Shehan's organisation.
He and his team can track the IP address to a physical location - and report it to local
authorities.
In 2019 alone the NGO received more than 21,000 reports of suspected child sexual abuse material
linked to German IP addresses, deemed worthy of investigation by German law enforcement.
But: One in ten of these investigations die before they ever really start.
German laws don't allow providers to keep IP addresses long enough. They're deleted,
gone before anything can be done.
Now, unfortunately, in Germany these data can only be stored for up to seven days, which
means that we simply cannot follow up several thousand leads per year. Of course this is
not easy for us - it's a psychological burden, because you have in the back of your mind
that the abuse may be continuing.
The country has been through two dictatorships that abused mass surveillance. People now
guard their privacy fiercely.
Some fear laws that would allow data to be stored, could be abused. But others say such
concerns are outdated and obstruct necessary investigation
It's not about knowing everything, exposing all secrets. It's not that at all - rather
it's really that we need some kind of individual connection data. Who used which IP address,
and when. In my opinion, what could be gained from this, far outweighs the disadvantages
or concerns.
But those concerns remain strong. Parliamentarians introduced a new data retention law in 2015
that would mean providers could store IP addresses for up to ten weeks. Constitutional complaints
have blocked it from being enacted. In comparison, most other EU countries allow data retention
for up to six months.
These strict limits on keeping data are not all that makes life difficult for German investigators
trying to track paedophiles. Decoding digital footsteps and unlocking data isn't as easy
as TV series and movies might suggest.
There are some highly sophisticated consumers of child sexual abuse material, educating
one another, on how to hide their footprints online so they can't be identified by law
enforcement
A recent case in the German city of Münster is a good example. There, a man suspected
of having child sexual abuse material had such an advanced set-up, investigators took
more than a year to get into his computer
Police are still working to crack more than 500 terabytes of data which the man held in
a server room - with professional-level encryption.
Dealing with confiscated encrypted hard drives, there is always this assumption that it’s
easy for law enforcement to access them, but that’s simply not the case. This is a problem
law enforcement around the world is facing. And it's actually the exception rather than
the rule, that we manage to crack such an encryption
German authorities would stand a better chance if they had enough staff. But they simply
don't have the people they need.
And while funding the police has increased over the past couple of years, 'Germany spends
less of its GDP than the EU average.'
When cases of reported child sexual abuse images cases increase, we need to match that
increase with staff. The more staff you have to work in this area, the more crimes you'll
be able to investigate. Otherwise you'll never get on top of it.
Data laws that simply kill off investigations after a few days. Criminals who are streets
ahead in technology. And staff shortages in those bodies trying to catch them. Little
wonder German police are losing in the fight against people spreading child sexual abuse
images on the internet. It can seem hopeless. But some changes are on the way, which might
help.
One proposed new law would force platforms like Facebook and Twitter to report illegal
posts to authorities. And they would have to store them, giving
police a fighting chance of tracing those who made the posts.
The global nature of the crimes is also being matched by the authorities - sharing their
knowledge and tactics around the world.
Even if they're outnumbered and outgunned - all those taking to the digital battleground
know why they're doing it