Led by police in the Philippines, a new global anti-child sex abuse taskforce started dissecting the U.S. citizen's digital footprint in order to track down the exploited girls. "Those images were very sexually explicit ... disturbing," said William Macavinta, the Filipino police general heading the unit that launched this year to combat cybersex trafficking - a form of modern slavery where children are abused over webcam. "It was clear that we had to move fast to extract the children," said Macavinta, whose country is considered by campaigners to be the epicentre of the fast-growing trade. Three weeks later, British and Australian cops assembled with their local counterparts one evening just before dusk, and raided a slum located on fishing docks in the capital, Manila. The taskforce did not find the alleged local offender but rescued five girls - aged 10 to 13 - who had been groomed and directed to perform sex acts over livestream by the American. Tens of thousands of girls in the … [Read more...] about Global taskforce tackles cybersex child trafficking in the Philippines
Childrens online privacy protection act
Joining hands to protect children on the internet
Illustrative Image phapluatplus.vn By Thu Trang HÀ NỘI — Nguyễn Bích Ngọc, a junior high school student in Hà Nội, started to use a smartphone when she was a 6th grader. Seeing most of her classmates use Facebook, Ngọc (not her real name, to protect her privacy) managed to set up an account for herself. Facebook regulates that people can set up an account only when they are over 13 years old, but Ngọc simply lied and said she was older than she was, because “no one inspected it”, she said. Being free to make friends with everybody around the world, Ngọc was happy when her friend list reached thousands of people. “I did not know most of the people on my friend list in real life,” she said. Ngọc has shared a lot of her information on her Facebook, although she does not know the identities of her friends, nor where they are. “For a time, I used to neglect my studying because I … [Read more...] about Joining hands to protect children on the internet
EU’s new data protection rules come into effect
The European Union's new data protection laws came into effect on Friday (May 25), with Brussels saying the changes will protect consumers from being like "people naked in an aquarium". The EU's so-called General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into effect on Friday (May 25). (Photo: AFP) The EU's so-called General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been blamed for a flood of spam emails and messages in recent weeks as firms rush to request the explicit consent of users to contact them. Even though the rules were officially adopted two years ago, with a grace period until now to adapt to them, companies have been slow to act, resulting in a last-minute scramble this week. Britain's data protection watchdog, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), said that its site had experienced "a few interruptions" as the deadline loomed, but said that "everything is working now". Brussels insists that the laws will become a global benchmark for the protection of people's … [Read more...] about EU’s new data protection rules come into effect
Consumer groups seek probe of YouTube over ads for kids
Consumer and activist groups called Monday for an investigation into Google-owned YouTube for allowing advertising to be targeted at children in apparent violation of US law. Consumer groups seek probe of YouTube over ads for kids, illustration photo: AFP The organizations said that although YouTube claims that the site is only for users 13 and up, Google generates significant profits from kid-targeted advertising on the video-sharing service. Twenty-three organizations signed a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), arguing that YouTube is among the most popular online platforms for children and offers many programs designed and promoted for children. According to the complaint, Google collects personal information about minors on YouTube, including location, unique device identifiers and mobile telephone numbers, and uses that to target advertisements to kids across the internet, apparently without their parents' consent. It noted that YouTube contains … [Read more...] about Consumer groups seek probe of YouTube over ads for kids