Category Archives: Uncategorized

Anonymity and privacy in the time of encryption

Posted on May 20, 2020 by

“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

A look inside the Internet Watch Foundation

Posted on April 22, 2020 by

You might be interested in this chilling but extremely well-produced and informative insight into the workings of a hotline, in this case the Internet Watch Foundation: “Pixels from a Crime Scene”.

Posted in Child abuse images, Regulation, Self-regulation, Uncategorized

More bad news about children and the lockdown

Posted on April 22, 2020 by

In England the Department for Education(DfE) has lead responsibility for child protection. In 2019 the total school population for England was 8.7 million pupils. A shocking story broke today on the BBC and  in The Guardian about what is happening to some of England’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Regulation, Self-regulation, Uncategorized

Minor correction

Posted on April 19, 2020 by

Minor correction to my last blog. Iraq and the Philippines come ahead of Bangladesh in terms of csam uploaded.  The corrected version can be seen here. No change to the top two and no change to any of the percentages. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized

Meet the “cappers” or, rather, don’t

Posted on March 31, 2020 by

“Cappers” is a term that has been around for a while.  Click here  for a great explanation from Signy Arnason, Associate Director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. “Capping” is about tricking children into doing something inappropriate, for example … Continue reading →

Posted in CEOP, Child abuse images, Default settings, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation, Uncategorized

Sad, but unfortunately not surprising

Posted on March 19, 2020 by

Free speech and civil liberties organizations do a hugely important job scrutinizing the activities of state agencies. However, you are forced to wonder if, sometimes, they don’t completely lose touch with common humanity. The Electronic Frontier Foundation  (EFF)has just served … Continue reading →

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

No room for complacency

Posted on February 20, 2020 by

My last blog was fairly upbeat about the UK Government’s interim response to the consultation on Online Harms. True the response was light on concrete proposals but much of the language was excellent. The overall tone was tough and purposeful. … Continue reading →

Posted in Age verification, Child abuse images, Default settings, E-commerce, Internet governance, Regulation, Self-regulation, Uncategorized