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

Warriors win. Children win

Posted on June 12, 2021 by John Carr

Three days ago, on Wednesday 9th June, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P) published a brilliant report containing details of their work over the two year period 2018-2020. I blogged about it the next day. In the two years … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Internet governance, Regulation, Self-regulation | Leave a comment

Canada puts another nail in the coffin of self-regulation

Posted on June 10, 2021 by John Carr

The Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P) is justly famous for many things. One of them is the quality of their research. It is based on two vital, interdependent pillars. First is a deep understanding of the position and needs … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Internet governance, Regulation, Self-regulation | Leave a comment

Facebook must change its mind

Posted on May 25, 2021 by John Carr

Over 90% of the reports shown in the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s graph below came from Facebook owned properties, principally Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct. Yet the company intends to avert its eyes from these Apps. It … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple, Child abuse images, Facebook, Regulation, Self-regulation | Leave a comment

Government in a muddle over porn

Posted on May 15, 2021 by John Carr

On the morning of 11th May the Queen’s Speech was delivered and published. In the afternoon, Caroline Dinenage MP appeared before the Communications and Digital Committee of the House of Lords. Ms Dinenage is the Minister of State responsible for … Continue reading →

Posted in Age verification, Facebook, Google, Internet governance, Pornography, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation | Leave a comment

Move slow and leave things broken

Posted on May 11, 2021 by John Carr

On 20th December, 2020, a new EU-wide law took effect. An unintended consequence appeared to call into question the legality of companies continuing to look for child sexual abuse materials being exchanged over messaging platforms. It also appeared to call … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Facebook, Google, Internet governance, Regulation, Self-regulation | Leave a comment

Great news for children coming out of Brussels

Posted on April 30, 2021 by John Carr

Last night in Brussels it was announced that a political agreement had been reached on the interim derogation. In plain English what that means is, pretty much immediately, we can go back to the position we all thought we were … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Default settings, E-commerce, Facebook, Google, ICANN, Internet governance, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation | Leave a comment

What can aeroplanes teach us?

Posted on April 11, 2021 by John Carr

The other day I was talking to the CEO of a tech company, expressing my frustration at the way scaremongering misinformation seems to have taken hold in relation to the way various child protection tools operate online. We are talking … Continue reading →

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Money counts. Children don’t. And 163

Posted on March 29, 2021 by John Carr

From around 2009 various online platforms voluntarily started using smart technical tools to detect, delete and report actual or likely child sex abuse images and detect and address potential paedophile behaviour. When the European Electronic Communications Code took effect on … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Default settings, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation | Leave a comment

Time to vaccinate against porn-fuelled violence against women

Posted on March 17, 2021 by John Carr

I am pleased to welcome guest blogger Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson who speaks about the  threat posed to women by the violent porn which is commonplace on the internet and about the British Government’s failure to address it. This is particularly … Continue reading →

Posted in Age verification, Internet governance, Pornography, Regulation, Self-regulation | Leave a comment

Trends and Facebook on manoeuvres

Posted on March 1, 2021 by John Carr

Last Wednesday the USA’s National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) published its numbers for 2020. 16.9 million reports received in 2019  grew to 21.7 million in 2020. That’s up over 25%. Messaging platforms remain the largest source. 21.4 … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Facebook, Internet governance, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation, Uncategorized | Leave a comment