Category Archives: Privacy

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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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Privacy warriors arrive late

Posted on November 20, 2020 by John Carr

Governments and legislators stood by and watched for years while the internet exploded, bringing in its wake huge benefits but also several downsides, particularly for children. “Permissionless Innovation” was the watchword. We even created special legal immunities to help things … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Default settings, Internet governance, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation, Uncategorized | 2 Comments