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

The shame continues

Posted on February 8, 2021 by John Carr

Last Thursday afternoon the LIBE Committee of the European Parliament met. The proceedings are viewable. The meeting was scheduled to take two hours.  It had several items to discuss. The earlier ones overran. When the question of the derogation and … Continue reading →

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

Canadians, ethics and porn

Posted on February 6, 2021 by John Carr

A great many people in Canada are extremely angry and more than a little embarrassed at the fact that they provide a home and operational base for MindGeek, owners of the world’s largest pornography web sites, in particular Pornhub. That … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Consent, E-commerce, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation | Leave a comment

Regrets? I’ve had a few….

Posted on January 24, 2021 by John Carr

Last week (20th January) the UK Parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee interviewed representatives of Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Google, Snap and Tik Tok. The Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee is Yvette Cooper, an intellectual heavyweight of the first water. … Continue reading →

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

Adding insult to irony

Posted on January 20, 2021 by John Carr

If, like me, you were brought up a Catholic or in another Christian denomination, likely you will know 6th January is celebrated by the faithful as the “Feast of the Epiphany.“ Well, in a secular sense, 6th January 2021 definitely … Continue reading →

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

Absurdities and atrocities

Posted on January 12, 2021 by John Carr

Voltaire famously said “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” History is littered with examples of this and last week in the USA we saw the same thing played out again. Lies and travelling trousers … Continue reading →

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

We need to treat Treaties seriously

Posted on January 5, 2021 by John Carr

The North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA) was a free trade agreement between the USA, Canada and Mexico. It became operative in 1994, although free trade between two of the three, Canada and the USA, had existed since 1989. In … Continue reading →

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

A very bad day for children in Europe

Posted on December 21, 2020 by John Carr

If you live in an EU Member State and you have used Facebook Messenger or Instagram Direct today you probably saw this message. “Some features are not available. This is to respect new rules for messaging services in Europe. We’re … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Default settings, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation | 1 Comment

A new industry award

Posted on December 17, 2020 by John Carr

On this crucial day for children, as the EU’s “trilogue” meets to decide the fate of proactive child protection tools within the 27 Member States, I have decided to inaugurate a new annual award. I think I will call it … Continue reading →

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Half a pat on the back

Posted on December 8, 2020 by John Carr

Thanks to tremendous lobbying and campaigning work by children’s organizations from across the world we have won the first part of what we wanted to achieve. LIBE says “yes” MEPs were tremendously impressed by the breadth and scale of support … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation | 2 Comments

The questions to be asked in Brussels

Posted on December 3, 2020 by John Carr

Crunch time approaches in Brussels. Members of the LIBE Committee and later the plenary need to focus on the following questions: When the GDPR was making its way through the European Instistitions do you think the co-legislators expressly intended to … Continue reading →

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