New obligations on Internet Service Providers

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The Federal Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator Chris Ellison has today written to all major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) advising them of strict new obligations to report online child pornography to the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

ISPs and Internet Content Hosts (ICHs) will have an obligation to report material they have reasonable grounds to believe is child pornography or child abuse material to the AFP, when the amendments to the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Criminal Code) commence on 1 March 2005.

“Internet Service Providers and Internet Content Hosts should be aware that come March 1 they will be obligated to join the Federal government’s frontline fight against abuse of children online,” Senator Ellison said.

“It can not be emphasised enough that behind every horrid piece of child pornography is a tragic case of an abused defenceless child, somewhere in the world.

“The Australian Government is determined to lead the world in efforts to stamp out the despicable trade in child pornography,” he said.

An ISP or ICH will now face penalties of $11,000 for the individual and $55 000 for body corporates if they are made aware that their service can be used to access material that they have reasonable grounds to believe is child pornography or child abuse material and they do not refer details of that material to the AFP within a reasonable time of becoming aware of the material’s existence.

It will also be a federal offence under these new provisions, carrying a penalty of ten years imprisonment, for a person to use a carriage service, such as the Internet, to access, transmit or make available child pornography or child abuse material, supplementing existing State and Territory laws.

ISPs and ICHs will now be working closely with the newly created AFP Online Child Exploitation Team (OSCET) and the Australian High Tech Crime Centre (AHTCC) to assist the AFP in identifying and eradicating child exploitation and paedophile networks.

The AFP-hosted AHTCC is a member of the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT), established to fight online child exploitation and to provide education and advice to members of the public. For more information on the AHTCC or VGT go to www.ahtcc.gov.au and www.virtualglobaltaskforce.com.

For more information on the reporting obligations of ISPs and ICHs, go to www.ag.gov.au/ispresponsibilities.

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Source = http://www.ag.gov.au/agd/WWW/justice..._on_child_porn

Funny, I never saw this posted here.

And from: http://www.ag.gov.au/ispresponsibilities

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The most relevant offences for ISPs and ICHs are those relating to:

* the use of the Internet to access, transmit and make available child pornography and child abuse material in sections 474.19 and 474.22, and
* the possession or production of such material with intent to place it on the Internet in sections 474.20 and 474.23.

Child pornography and child abuse material will be defined in section 473.1 of the Criminal Code.

Child abuse material means material that:

* depicts or describes a person under 18 years of age and is, or appears to be, a victim of torture, cruelty or physical abuse, and
* does this in a way that reasonable persons would regard as being offensive.

Child pornography material means material that:

* depicts, represents or describes a person under 18 years of age who is engaged in, or appears to be engaged in, a sexual pose or sexual activity or is in the presence of a person who is engaged in, or appears to be engaged in, a sexual pose or sexual activity, and
* does this in a way that reasonable persons would regard as being, in all the circumstances, offensive.

Child pornography material also includes material the dominant characteristic of which is the depiction, representation, or description, for a sexual purpose, of a sexual organ or the anal region of a person under 18 years of age; or the breasts of a female person under 18 years of age, in a way that reasonable persons would regard as being, in all the circumstances, offensive.

The new offences complement existing offences in the Customs Act 1901 prohibiting the importation of such material into Australia. Each of the new offences in the Criminal Code carries a maximum penalty of ten years imprisonment.

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New reporting obligations for ISPs and ICHs
New section 474.25 places an important obligation on ISPs and ICHs:

474.25 Obligations of Internet service providers and Internet content hosts

A person commits an offence if the person:
(a) is an Internet service provider or an Internet content host; and
(b) is aware that the service provided by the person can be used to access particular material that the person has reasonable grounds to believe is:
(i) child pornography material; or
(ii) child abuse material; and
(c) does not refer details of the material to the Australian Federal Police within a reasonable time after becoming aware of the existence of the material.

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Yes this was big news here in Australia a few months ago.

A few hosts even went as far as relocating their lives, and businesses, to non extradition countries (like Cuba, Russia, the Middle East, and South America) to avoid prosecution.

Australia, Canada, the U.K. and U.S. government agencies all belong to the Virtual Global Task Force.

Any Australian, or Australian business, that hosts sites catering to pedophiles or CP have the following penalties.. no matter where in the world they reside, unless it's a non extradition country "An ISP or ICH will now face penalties of $11,000 for the individual and $55 000 for body corporates if they are made aware that their service can be used to access material that they have reasonable grounds to believe is child pornography or child abuse material"

Child pornography in Australia is described differently then in the U.S.

"Child pornography material means material that:

* depicts, represents or describes a person under 18 years of age who is engaged in, or appears to be engaged in, a sexual pose or sexual activity or is in the presence of a person who is engaged in, or appears to be engaged in, a sexual pose or sexual activity, and
* does this in a way that reasonable persons would regard as being, in all the circumstances, offensive.

Child pornography material also includes material the dominant characteristic of which is the depiction, representation, or description, for a sexual purpose, of a sexual organ or the anal region of a person under 18 years of age"

I think the key thing here is that the ISP / Hosting Provider must take action if and when they are made AWARE that there's a problem.

My company does not patrol or monitor the content on our servers. That would be like asking the telephone company to monitor all calls for crime related discussions. Of course we monitor traffic for DOS attacks and mail server traffic for SPAM but to my knowledge, there's no conent auditing going on at this point. It's impossible to monitor what's being served up on hunderds of thousounds of dynamic and constantly changing sites. Although it sounds like hosting companies like mine may soon have to monitor content just like we do for spam.

The ISP / Hosting Provider covers itself in two ways:

1) In their terms of Service / AUP they make it clear that they will not allow a webmaster to serve up content that's illegal (DMCA, Harassment, C.P., Obscene or Abusive) and that they can terminate service if you violate those terms- but - like I said there no active monitoring for it - we wait until we receive a complaint from law enforecement, a advocacy group or a just a concerned person who calls Tech Support.

2) Should the ISP / Host receive a complaint stating that their servers are hosting CP / obscene or other wise illegal content - they then must take action immediately or they too can be held liable.

Once we get a complaint, we don't act as judge or jury we simply log it and contact the webmaster informing him/her that their site is being tarred up for our attorney to review. If there's any indication upon an initial review that the complaint is legitimate there's really no questions asked and right or wrong - one complaint is enough to pull a site down. <= So If hosts are going to get trigger happy in the near future -- Always back-up your files and have a secondary / back-up host ready.

I think this is a beginning of a movement to hold everyone involved in the process of serving up a page more accountable - not just the webmasters.

Intersting Trend.

Just my .02 cents cause im board waiting for this freaking hurricane to get here :uhoh: cj

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Originally Posted by ACE

I think the key thing here is that the ISP / Hosting Provider must take action if and when they are made AWARE that there's a problem.

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But this is funny to me because it's the easy way out. "But I didn't know!" Till someone pops up with emails, screen prints of posted warnings as well as screen prints of "I deleted this because of blah blah blah and now that it's deleted... "But I didn't know""

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Originally Posted by ACE

I think this is a beginning of a movement to hold everyone involved in the process of serving up a page more accountable - not just the webmasters.

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As it should be! You don't need to run adult servers or host adult sites; it’s a right. With that right, comes the responsibility to ensure you, as a host, are not assisting in the production, distribution and even funding of CP / obscene or other wise illegal content.

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Originally Posted by ACE

2) Should the ISP / Host receive a complaint stating that their servers are hosting CP / obscene or other wise illegal content - they then must take action immediately or they too can be held liable.

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Right and when I tell a host, who happens to be a moderator of GWW, in a post that he's hosting that kind of material.. the post is deleted.

So it seems an out for hosts to say they never got the email, or to delete posts of people trying to inform them of what they're doing.

Kind of like the "head in the sand" approach to doing business, then when they get busted they act like victims "I never knew. Nobody told me." :angel:

It sounds like you're doing the right thing Ace and welcome to GWW btw :thumbsup: :)

Well I don't get all this at all. Given how litigeous people are these days, I'd say that while the requirements are that anyone informed of content that might be in violation of certain laws, would first ascertain if the complaint has any foundation before hitting the kill switch. If they don't, they get fried for wrongful termination.

It is no different than if I wrote to any webmaster and said, hey that pic you got on so & so page looks awfully young. Do you immediately go and pull the picture from your gallery? Or do you go and check your documents first? Then if you still are in doubt you go to the supplier to verify the id that came with it... but I doubt if 95% or more of webmasters would pull the picture first.

Now if its a government agency, or some well established authority group, perhaps I'd pull the pic, or freeze the account, but come on folks... this is a business and no ISP can monitor every single image on every single account, hell even the police rely on the public to inform them of illegal activities and they don't always respond instantly. So why would you expect an ISP to do what no one else does?

I think we all have a responsibility to police our sites, and inform the powers that be when we find something not kosher. But we can't expect 'instant justice' without knowing all facts.

Myself, I am not good at determining ages. I asked our paperboy last week why the paper was late as there wasn't school. He was pretty pissed cause he was 20... so just because one or two have an 'opinion' of age, until proof is provided or those giving the 'opinion' are authorities on the matter, I'd say that how things are now for ISPs is the right way to handle it.

just my two cents
Ian