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Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Experts needed in cyber-crime cases
By Charmaine Y. Rodriguez
Sun.Star Staqff Reporter
HOW can online child pornography be stopped? For starters, support from Internet café owners and training in cyber-crime investigation for the police are needed, along with public campaigns.
All efforts will also prove futile if there are no forensic laboratories or experts that can handle digital evidence, said Supt. Augusto Marquez Jr., chief of the Regional Intelligence and Investigation Division.
The police force needs equipment in place to conduct cyber-patrols, Marquez added in yesterday’s Visayas conference on “Building Alliances to Combat Child Pornography.”
During the start of the two-day conference, participants found out that the absence of a law that will penalize online child pornography is affecting efforts to curb the crime.
But Marquez said that apart from the law, the police needs to effectively pursue such cases to ensure the suspects are prosecuted and sent to jail.
“Hindi nararamdaman ang law kung walang nakukulong. We should send offenders to prison so these people will know we mean business,” he said.
In a separate interview, Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal challenged the authorities to map out measures against cybersex, particularly the operators of porn sites.
“We have to condemn those things because why do we have to expose our young people to these sinful things?” the prelate said in an interview over GMA7 Balitang Bisdak.
Hidden dangers
Vidal issued his statement more than a week after agents from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group 7 arrested Marc Anthony Woolbright, 52, for allegedly maintaining a cybersex studio in a Lapu-Lapu City apartment.
A criminal complaint has been filed against him before the Lapu-Lapu City Prosecutor’s Office, and the City Government is working on tighter regulations on Internet cafes.
Meanwhile, Cebu City’s conference participants, who comprised representatives from the police, government and nongovernment organizations, also saw the need to dialogue with owners of hotels and pension houses and to hold a symposium on the hidden dangers of cyberspace.
The Cebu City Commission for the Welfare and Protection of Children plan to start with an information drive in 15 of the city’s 26 night high schools.
Mark Albo of the End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes-Cebu will also start radio campaigns and other information dissemination activities.
Cafe cooperation
Albo confirmed that more girls and women are trooping to Internet cafes in the cities of Cebu and Mandaue.
In Lapu-Lapu City, many cybersex dens, which are now being frequented by girls and women, are operated by apartment owners, he said.
Jay Jocson, cluster manager of the Internet café chain Netopia, said they are doing their part in the campaign by monitoring their customers and prohibiting access to porn websites.
He urged authorities to strictly implement local ordinances and monitor errant Internet café operators, in fairness to those that are complying with local laws.
But aside from the Internet, third-generation mobile phones also pose risks for minors, said special investigator Christopher O’Connor of the Sexual Crimes Squad of Victoria, Australia.
Peter Moore, regional managing director of Microsoft Asia Pacific, said that people need to know “how technology can be used to abuse them.”
Moore, who was among the speakers in the conference, said that www.microsoft.com contains basic information that could be accessed by the public.
The company is also coming up with a Child Exploitation Tracking System that could be used as a database by police organizations in different countries.
It allows files and documents to be shared, if these help in investigations. (With JST)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 21, 2006 issue)
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