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

With steam coming out of my ears

Posted on October 16, 2019

Today was a terrible day for children in the UK and the Government is 100% to blame. However, because of the drama and uproar over Brexit what the Government has done may struggle to get adequate attention in the media … Continue reading →

Posted in Age verification, Regulation, Uncategorized

Is the Internet Governance Forum to be reborn?

Posted on October 11, 2019

At the moment there is a “High Level” review going on within the United Nations.  It was commissioned by the Secretary General of the UN  who appointed Melinda Gates and Jack Ma as co-chairs. With this type of backing it … Continue reading →

Posted in Internet governance, Regulation, Self-regulation

On encryption and child protection

Posted on October 5, 2019

A company is normally driven by a desire and a legal obligation to build “shareholder value”. In the case of one company, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg owns a majority of the voting stock so when looking at its big decisions we … Continue reading →

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

A startling statistic

Posted on October 4, 2019

In a live broadcast from Washington DC  the Assistant Attorney General of the USA just announced that in 2018 Apple reported 8 instances of csam on their platform. Facebook Messenger reported 12 million. Either Apple’s users are uniquely virtuous or … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple, Child abuse images

There is something strange going on

Posted on September 30, 2019

I expect many of you will by now have seen the piece in the weekend edition of the  New York Times. I will be writing more fully about it quite soon but, meanwhile, there was something that rather leapt off … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Internet governance, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation

Brussels is listening

Posted on September 23, 2019

Good news from the EU. They have been listening to children’s organizations’ concerns about the e-Privacy Regulation. I think supporting Option 2 is the right way to go although not sure keeping such an exclusive focus on hashing technology is … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Internet governance, Regulation, Self-regulation

Facebook moving in the right direction

Posted on September 19, 2019

That is not a headline I thought I would write any time soon. However, I have to say I applaud Facebook’s announcement earlier this week concerning the company’s plans to address the standards they will adopt in relation to content … Continue reading →

Posted in Default settings, E-commerce, Facebook, Internet governance, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation