CIRCAMP - COSPOL Internet Related Child Abusive Material Project

The Child Sexual Abuse Anti-Distribution Filter (CSAADF)

CSAADF is the result of the COSPOL working group on 'Internet related child abusive material', named CIRCAMP (Cospol Internet Related Child Abusive Material Project). COSPOL stands for Comprehensive, Operational, Strategic Planning for the Police. It is a multilateral law enforcement instrument under the guidance, support and direction of the European Police Chiefs Taskforce (EPCTF) and was set up in 2004 under the Dutch presidency of the European Union.

COSPOL working groups aim at achieving operational results in police investigations across EU Member States and at dismantling criminal networks whilst ensuring that the EU Member States' competent authorities make use of Europol’s analytical support.

Images and videos depicting sexual abuse of children are freely accessible from all computers and devices with Internet capability, regardless of country and legislation. Child sexual abuse material is, however, also commercially distributed through pay-per-view websites which are known to be controlled by organised crime networks. Therefore the EPCTF has advised that CIRCAMP should focus on the commercial sexual exploitation of children, in removing or limiting the customer base of commercial sites distributing child sexual abusive material.

The primary aims of domain based filtering and displaying a STOP page on the computer or mobile device of an Internet user accessing a web site with child abuse content are:

• To prevent the re-victimization of those children who are or have been the victim of abuse.
• To prevent accidental access to this illegal and harmful content by the public
• To prevent deliberate access to child abuse material on the Internet
• To reduce the customer base of these illegal websites with the assistance of participating Internet Service Providers (ISP)

This is a preventive measure. It is NOT aimed at initiating an investigation against the user, nor to replace traditional investigations into child sexual abuse on the Internet.

In participating countries, police services receive complaints from the public through Hotlines in relation to websites displaying child sexual abuse material. Based on these complaints and investigations, a list of websites containing child abuse material is provided to participating Internet Service Providers by National Police Services. This list is carefully created according to national legislation. Therefore the number of sites being blocked and the nature of these will differ between the participating countries.

This project is also supported by Interpol.
Europol, October 2008.

Links: Cyber Crime convention