Author Archives: John Carr

About John Carr

John Carr is one of the world's leading authorities on children's and young people's use of digital technologies. He is Senior Technical Adviser to Bangkok-based global NGO ECPAT International, Technical Adviser to the European NGO Alliance for Child Safety Online, which is administered by Save the Children Italy and an Advisory Council Member of Beyond Borders (Canada). Amongst other things John is or has been an Adviser to the United Nations, ITU, the European Union, the Council of Europe and European Union Agency for Network and Information Security and is a former Board Member of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety. He is Secretary of the UK's Children's Charities' Coalition on Internet Safety. John has advised many of the world's largest internet companies on online child safety. In June, 2012, John was appointed a Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. More: http://johncarrcv.blogspot.com

Meet the “cappers” or, rather, don’t

Posted on March 31, 2020

“Cappers” is a term that has been around for a while.  Click here  for a great explanation from Signy Arnason, Associate Director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. “Capping” is about tricking children into doing something inappropriate, for example … Continue reading →

Posted in CEOP, Child abuse images, Default settings, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation, Uncategorized

More on the risks associated with strong encryption

Posted on March 25, 2020

I hope someone in Facebook reads this and passes a message up the line. I am sure it will only add to the substantial number they have already received on exactly the same point. Cho Joo-bin lives in South Korea. … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Default settings, Pornography, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation

Sad, but unfortunately not surprising

Posted on March 19, 2020

Free speech and civil liberties organizations do a hugely important job scrutinizing the activities of state agencies. However, you are forced to wonder if, sometimes, they don’t completely lose touch with common humanity. The Electronic Frontier Foundation  (EFF)has just served … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation, Uncategorized

More progress in the fight against online child sex abuse

Posted on March 13, 2020

Last week representatives from the Governments of the “Five Eyes” nations, (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the USA) gathered in Washington DC. They endorsed a set of eleven voluntary principles to combat a range of online threats to … Continue reading →

Posted in Age verification, Child abuse images, Facebook, Google, Internet governance, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation

Companies behaving like states

Posted on March 10, 2020

Tech companies and Governments between them created the crisis of confidence that is said to be stimulating the demand for greater online privacy protection. Yet they are now lining up on opposite ends of the argument about how to address … Continue reading →

Posted in Consent, Internet governance, Regulation, Self-regulation

Good news from Australia

Posted on March 5, 2020

Good news from Australia. A Parliamentary Committee of Enquiry today publishes its findings, coming down in favour of age verification as an important tool to help keep pornography away from the eyes of people it was never meant for, namely … Continue reading →

Posted in Age verification, Pornography, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation

No room for complacency

Posted on February 20, 2020

My last blog was fairly upbeat about the UK Government’s interim response to the consultation on Online Harms. True the response was light on concrete proposals but much of the language was excellent. The overall tone was tough and purposeful. … Continue reading →

Posted in Age verification, Child abuse images, Default settings, E-commerce, Internet governance, Regulation, Self-regulation, Uncategorized