Because the Internet has no borders, police from around the world need to work together in investigating child pornography, says a police expert from Interpol.
“At Interpol, we have a database that contains more than half a million images. And the reason for that is so to avoid duplication of efforts by police,” said Anders Persson, a Swedish detective inspector currently seconded to Interpol General Secretariat in Lyon, France where he is responsible for the international police organization's Child Abuse Image Database (ICAID).
One challenge faced by police is that child pornography images might be coming from anywhere in the world — making it extremely difficult to identify some of the young victims.
Persson, 54, spoke Tuesday at a training conference for the Ontario Provincial Strategy to Protect Children from Sexual Abuse and Exploitation in Niagara Falls.
The four-day conference, being attended by more than 200 police officers, Crown attorneys and victim services workers, began Monday.
Sometimes, it's a small piece of the puzzle that helps police solve a case, said Det. Const. David Weeks, of the Niagara Regional Police child pornography and Internet luring division.
He notes it might be a little thing like blowing up a portion of an image to identify an item in the room, such as a label from a wine bottle. That clue might be able to tell police the country where that bottle of wine was produced.
Persson said in recent years, there has been better co-operation among police agencies. That has led to the arrest of pornographers who might otherwise never have been caught.
“The problem is that many police forces from around the world don't know about our service,” said Persson. “It's important that all images of abused children should be sent to Interpol.”
Police say they have only been able to identify about 600 victims worldwide, a very small amount considering the thousands of images collected. Hopefully, he said, those numbers will increase as more police agencies use the service.
“Once we are able to identify the victim and rescue them, we also find the abuser,” he said.
Persson said usually, those who produce child pornography prefer to distribute it far from where they live in order to avoid detection. Many people who share the same interest will often release images to others in their close group. Some photos are sold to make money.
“We need police from all over the world to work together without taking into account their own borders and their own budget problems. Some will ask why they should spend their resources investigating images that don't even come from their country.”
He added: “Right now we have a good network of police officers working from 20 different countries.”
Persson noted the recent case of Canadian Christopher Paul Neil, who was working in Thailand and who was charged with having sex with several Asian boys after Interpol issued an unprecedented worldwide appeal to identify and apprehend him. German police computer experts were able to unscramble photos on the Internet so the man's face was recognizable.
Police had spent more than two years working on that case.
Once the man's photo was circulated, tips led to his identity.
“We decided to put him on the Interpol website and asked the public and the media to identify the man — and it proved to be very successful.”
Within 12 hours, police began to get information about the suspect that led to his arrest.
“The media put so much attention on that case. Within two days, 15,000 news articles had appeared.”
