Protecting Children From Cyber-crimes

Submitted by Emelyne Calimoutou, PhD & 

LLM Candidate, Washington College of Law  

There are now two days left until Law, Justice and Development (LJD) week which involves bringing together hundreds of international experts to share the legal challenges they encounter in their daily professional life. These discussions represent the perfect forum to define the role of law and justice in the post-2015 development agenda. Information about LJD Week is online at: http://www.worldbank.org/ljdweek2014.

One of the sessions that caught my attention will be held on Tuesday October, 21, where experts will use their knowledge and experience to raise awareness on recent developments in the fight against cyber-crime activities involving children in Latin America and Asia. Among the speakers of the session are Elda Moreno, Special Assistant and Director of the Office of the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Violence against Children and Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography. 

In this event, the panel will use a contextualized approach more tailored to each context to create stronger legislations and policies of prevention against cyber-crime. It will also address the conflicts that arise in the process of fighting cyber-crime such as the need to respect the right privacy of individuals and states’ sovereignty. I hope the panel will also discuss not only topics related to the sanction of cyber-crimes affecting children such as the role of electronic evidence, the training of prosecutors and judge, but also the establishment of child protection measures for child online activities.

The fight against cyber-crime activities affecting children is particularly relevant regarding the World Bank Millennium goal to reduce poverty all over the world. In fact, virtual crime often leads to child abuse and exploitation such as trafficking and sex tourism.  People in poverty are especially vulnerable to these illegal industries. With nearly two billion internet users worldwide criminal groups have now more opportunities to contact new victims to exploit, especially children. The objective of the panel is to discuss the complexities of fighting cyber-crimes through sanction and prevention.