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

EU’s new policy statement on child sex abuse

Posted on July 6, 2020

The EU is developing a new policy statement ( a “Communication”) on the fight against child sex abuse. Here is a link to my submission.  It’s too long but there is an Appendix which summarises the main recommendations.

Posted in Child abuse images, Regulation, Self-regulation

Are you beyond being shocked?

Posted on July 2, 2020

Do you think you are beyond being shocked? I thought I was too, but I’ve just been reading about the “Kentler Project” . For 30 years the authorities in West Berlin intentionally placed homeless children in the care of known … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Uncategorized

Business goes where Governments fear to tread

Posted on June 28, 2020

It’s a funny old world. Governments bang on about the unacceptable nature of some of the stuff that regularly appears on social media. They call on the platforms to do something about it and, immediately, a whole army of predictable … Continue reading →

Posted in Facebook, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation, Uncategorized

Something could be done now?

Posted on June 21, 2020

If you click here you will see a copy of a letter I sent today to Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham CBE, the UK’s chief privacy enforcement official. In the letter I suggest the fact that the Government called a halt … Continue reading →

Posted in Advertising, Age verification, E-commerce, Pornography, Regulation, Self-regulation

A child’s legal right to porn? I don’t think so.

Posted on June 18, 2020

Pornhub is not an aid, comforter or reliable source of advice, guidance, support or information for children who are anxious or inquisitive about sex, their own sexuality, or relationships. Neither is any other porn site I know about. The fact … Continue reading →

Posted in Age verification, Internet governance, Pornography, Regulation, Self-regulation, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Problems with the GDPR

Posted on June 7, 2020

The EU recently undertook a review of the first two years of the operation of the GDPR. If you missed it you are not alone. The existence of the review was not well publicised. It will report soon but the … Continue reading →

Posted in Age verification, Child abuse images, Consent, Default settings, Internet governance, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation

President Trump gets it wrong

Posted on May 29, 2020

So it wasn’t an empty threat.  President Trump did it. He signed an Executive Order which, in essence, seeks to change the law on platform immunity, as conferred by s.230, Communications Decency Act 1996. It is doubtful the Executive Order … Continue reading →

Posted in Facebook, Google, Internet governance, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation

Good but nowhere near good enough

Posted on May 27, 2020

Last Thursday Facebook made an announcement about its plans for Messenger. In truth the substance of the announcement concerned great stuff I thought they were already doing, at least on their main Facebook platform, so discovering they were now going … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, E-commerce, Facebook, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation

Anonymity and privacy in the time of encryption

Posted on May 20, 2020

“What’s in a name?” is a recent publication from Demos (full disclosure: many moons ago I was a founding trustee of Demos but I haven’t had much contact with them of late). The Demos authors did a great job describing … Continue reading →

Posted in Default settings, Internet governance, Regulation, Self-regulation, Uncategorized | Tagged

Failures of contingency planning worsened by delay

Posted on May 18, 2020

UK Children’s organizations have written a letter of protest to the Government. The media have covered in some detail certain headline failures of contingency planning in relation to Covid-19 and lockdown. Less well remarked has been the failure of contingency … Continue reading →

Posted in Age verification, Consent, Default settings, E-commerce, Facebook, Google, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation