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Abstract
Internet pornography, especially child pornography, has been a significant concern in British society for several years. This article seeks to examine the prevalence and impact of such material, the way public concern has developed, and media and legislative reactions to this concern. It suggests that a more rational debate of the actual and likely dangers in this sphere is necessary in order both to protect and serve the interests of justice.
Notes
1 See, e.g. Aitkenhead (Citation1998): ‘We have always known … and our parents' parents will have warned them not to take sweets from strangers’.
2 Sidney Cooke was found guilty of the murder of Jason Swift at his East London flat in 1989, and subsequently in 1999 admitted ten further attacks on children.
3 See BBC News (2005c): Concern has been expressed that, by posting pictures online of routine everyday activities, a paedophile could establish habitual patterns and geographical locations as a precursor to an attack.
4 Some Internet service providers, such as MSN, have closed their online chat room facilities in several countries.
5 Section 15, subsequently amended by the Sexual Offences Act 1988, and most recently by the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
6 Section 1(1)(a) Protection of Children Act 1978.
7 Section 1(1)(b) Protection of Children Act 1978.
8 This process actually began with possession of indecent images of children being made an offence for the first time by virtue of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, s.160 (though the main legislative developments occurred later), with pseudo-photography included by virtue of amendments to the above legislation and the Protection of Children Act 1978 by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
9 Sexual Offences Act 2003, ss.48-51.
10 Section 1(1)(b) Protection of Children Act 1978.
11 Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000.
12 British police forces currently utilise EnCase software (produced by Guidance Software), which allows for the copying of a ‘mirror image’ of a computer hard drive or similar storage medium, allowing for an examination of its detail, including such activities as Internet history, searches and photographic materials.
13 Akdeniz (Citation1997) highlights the deficiencies of this list, suggesting that it included a range of material—such as sites dedicated to homosexual issues—that constituted neither pornography nor child pornography.
14 Wall (Citation1999) further argues that, in the context of the United States, the moral panic led to the introduction of legislation without fully analysing the extent of the issue of online material.
15 ‘Evil of Ecstacy’, The Sun, 19 October 1988; ‘Acid House Horror’, The Sun, 25 October 1988; ‘Acid Kids Lured to Holland’, Daily Mirror, 14 November 1988.
16 According to the Internet Watch Foundation's 2004 figures, there was a fall of 12% in the year of Internet sites containing child pornography.
17 See also BBC News (Citation2000c): the home of a female paediatrician at the Royal Gwent Hospital was daubed with the word ‘paedo’, speculated to be due to confusion on the part of the attackers between ‘paediatrician’ and ‘paedophile’. Rosemary Butler, Welsh Assembly Member for Newport West, said the ‘appalling’ attack appeared to have taken place as a consequence of ‘sheer hysteria, bravado and ignorance’.
18 ‘Named and Shamed’, News of the World, 23 July 2000; BBC News (Citation2000d, Citation2000e, Citation2000f, Citation2000g, Citation2000i). In relation to debates regarding the United Kingdom adopting some form of access of information regarding convicted paedophiles living in their local area (sometimes described as ‘Sarah's Law’—a reference to murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne), see, e.g. BBC News (Citation2000j). For further reference to the American legislation on this issue (‘Megan's Law’), see, e.g. BBC News (Citation2000k).
19 Some 89% of 1,000 participants questioned in a survey said that they would support such moves.
20 Since some such groups are technically outside the law enforcement mechanisms.
21 Operation Pin involved the setting up of fake websites that then, it was claimed, collected details of individuals who wish to access child pornography (see BBC News, Citation2003b).
22 Letter to Sunday Times, 3 July 2005.
23 See further Note 18 (above).