Actions to counter Internet child pornography

The Ministry of Communications of Colombia is the leader in a very strong campaign against Internet child pornography where participate the judicial and control organisms, the police and the civil society. Its actions include:

• Technical measures have been adopted to prevent access via the Internet to content related to the sexual exploitation of children, and systems for self-regulation and codes of conduct have been established for Internet Service Providers, servers, and administrators.

• Government entities and nongovernmental organizations have defined criteria for classifying content related to the sexual exploitation of children, which are serving as input for authorities classifying pages and facilitate the administrative investigation and prosecution of this offense.

• Based on this classification, Internet access providers are being required to block sites containing content related to the sexual exploitation of children. In addition, administrative investigations are being launched, with a view to imposing the sanctions contained in the provisions. If such content is found in foreign servers, remedy is sought under international cooperation agreements.

• An institutional HEALTHY INTERNET campaign is being promoted, whose purpose is to prevent and counteract the sexual exploitation of children via the Internet and to encourage reporting of such exploitation. The campaign, comprising radio and television messages and printed materials, seeks in an informative and educational way to involve all Colombians in preventing this offense.

• Mechanisms are now in place to report such exploitation by Internet or telephone.

• In cooperation with UNICEF, a workshop will be held for child Internet users, to include instructional situations. The workshop’s end product will be a handbook containing teaching suggestions for attaining the objectives, and methods of implementation and monitoring of results.

Felix Castro
Ministry of Communications
Colombia