The designated conveners of Correspondence Group on COP17 submitted document TD 2506 with the subject title. It was, however, never approved as a Report by the Correspondence Group. Indeed, TD 2506 inexplicably and arbitrarily omits most of the material that was developed as part of the Group work and provided to be part of the Report. Conversely, the TD includes information that was never raised with the Group and was simply inserted into TD 2506 as what appear to be the convenors own views. These concerns were raised on the CG list by several parties, and the convenors chose simply to ignore any questions or concerns and submit their own material as a TD purporting to represent the Correspondence Group. Therefore, TD 2506 can only be regard as the views of the conveners concerning the subject matter. In no way is it a report of the Correspondence Group or represents the view of the Group.
This contribution contains some of the important work and factual material developed by members of the Correspondence Group pursuant to its terms of reference and discussed on the Group’s list.
1. Technical work already underway related to COP (Terms of Reference clause 1)
The following Standards Development Organizations, industry forums, and intergovernmental bodies were identified as undertaking significant work related to COP that is already underway and widely implemented worldwide by industry and national administrations.
1.1 World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
The W3C is the principal global standards development organization for Web design, applications, and architecture including semantic content, whose specifications form the basis for essentially all network content exchange today.
Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER). The W3C Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) begun in the 1990s, was superseded by POWDER. The POWDER reference site is at http://www.w3.org/2007/powder/. A primer is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/powder-primer/ See, especially the section on COP and the ICRA (Internet Content Rating Association) labeling standard. Although these efforts originated in 1994, current work was begun in 2004, and the standard was formally adopted 1 Sep 2009.
Today, the POWDER standard is used worldwide as the principal technical platform for dealing with COP related content. As of 10 Jan 2011, POWDER is referenced by 698,000 site URLs for COP purposes, and the standard is incorporated widely in vendor products as described on the reference site. The standard is also broadly applicable to and interoperable with almost all ICT resources using RDF (Resource Description Framework) and OWL (Web Ontology Language). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). These guidelines specify capabilities needed for persons with disabilities to use the POWDER standard, including implementations for COP undertaken by ICRA. See the W3C WCAG site at http://www.w3.org/TR/2012/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20120103/. Ref. TSAG Doc. T09-TSAG-120110-TD-GEN-0254. Social Web Incubator Group WG. public-xg-socialweb@w3.org serves as a continuing forum by COP experts for extending W3C standards to new services. 1.2 Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP)
CEOP is a UK based organization for global public-private cooperation relating to COP. It cooperates closely with other organizations described below to develop standards and implement COP capabilities. Information is available at http://ceop.police.uk/.
1.3 Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT)
The VGT is a global public-private organization that seeks to build an effective, international partnership of law enforcement agencies, non government organisations and industry to help protect children from online child abuse. http://www.virtualglobaltaskforce.com/ VGT cooperates closely with INHOPE on technical standards and platforms. 1.4 International Association of Internet Hotlines (INHOPE)
INHOPE is based in Amsterdam and coordinates a network of Internet Hotlines all over the world, supporting them in responding to reports of illegal content (including child sexual abuse material). In conjunction with this work, it develops technical standards and applications among major vendors worldwide.
Mobile online content reporting application. INHOPE mobile is a free tool for a user to anonymously report any suspect illegal content through their mobile device. The report will then be forwarded to the hosting country’s hotline which will investigate the report according to the national legislation and, where appropriate, the relevant law enforcement agencies will be informed and the content removed. Information concerning the application which was publicly released on 18 November 2011 in Rome, as well as related standards is available at: http://www.inhope.org/gns/about-us/INHOPE_mobile.aspx. 1.5 Internet Watch Foundation (IWF)
For 15 years, IWF organization has functioned as a public-private partnership based in the UK with a remit to minimise the availability of potentially criminal internet content that includes images of child sexual abuse hosted anywhere in the world. See http://www.iwf.org.uk/about-iwf/remit-vision-and-mission. In conjunction with this objective, it works with organizations worldwide developing related capabilities, especially the Blocking Initiative. Blocking Initiative. IWF Board agreed to develop standards and procedures under which a child sexual abuse content URL list would be implemented. Since 2004 many companies worldwide have chosen to make use of this list to protect their customers, namely, internet service providers, mobile operators, search providers, and filtering companies. National and international law enforcement agencies and INHOPE Hotlines also access the list on a mutual exchange basis. The initiative FAQ is available at http://www.iwf.org.uk/services/blocking/blocking-faqs. 1.6 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
The OECD is a Paris based 50 year old major intergovernmental organization with membership of 34 nations with a mission to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. Its staff of 2500, outside consultants, and expert committees undertake research and the production of highly regarded reports. In 2011, the OECD released a major report with an extensive amount of research covering the terms of reference of the ITU-T CG17 Correspondence Group on COP. The report is provided as Annex 1.
The report concludes that “A whole toolkit of technical measures supporting the protection of children online is available, and describes on pages 71 to 75 of the report the technical and operational measures available in countries worldwide to meet their COP needs in accordance with their national policies.
1.7 ICT Coalition for a Safer Internet for Children and Young People
In mid-January 2012, a broad global coalition of twenty-five major information and communication service providers and vendors issued principles for the development of products and services to actively enhance the safety of children and young people online.
· develop innovative ways of enhancing online safety and encouraging responsible use of the internet and internet access devices by children and young people;
· empower parents and carers to engage with and help protect their children;
· provide easily accessible, clear and transparent information about online safety and behaviour;
· raise awareness of how – and to whom – to report abuse and concerns.
2. Assessment of possible technical work that SG 17 is equipped to undertake (Terms of Reference clause 1)
In assessing possible technical work that SG 17 is equipped to undertake as a result of its particular mandate and expertise, it was apparent in light of the above compilation of existing work and discussions occurring on the COP17 list that:
a. Existing highly expert global and regional SDOs and industry forums have been undertaking the relevant technical work for nearly two decades.
b. The identified SDOs and industry forums have adopted the needed relevant standards which are widely recognized and deployed across the global infrastructures. However, one party in the Correspondence Group – the SG 17 Chair – believed that somehow there might be more needed standards work.
c. These forums remain the principal active venues for further work, and a broad array of ITU-T members participate in them.
d. Some of the work of these forums involves producing standards for restricting the availability of content at a national level that would be precluded from the ITU-T under Res. 130 of the ITU Final Acts of the Plenipotentiary Conference (Guadalajara, 2010). See Annex 3 to this contribution. However, one party in the Correspondence Group – the SG 17 Chair – believed if SG 17 undertook this same work, that Res. 130 could be somehow circumvented through devises such as changing “content control” to “access control.”
e. Even without the Res. 130 restriction, SG 17 clearly does not possess the very significant level of specialized expertise and industry involvement that exists in the many forums already doing this work – a view supported by the ITU Members in Resolution 179 of the ITU Final Acts Plenipotentiary Conference (Guadalajara, 2010). See Annex 3 to this contribution. However, one party in the Correspondence Group – the SG 17 Chair – believed that despite only a handful of people in SG 17 expressing the slightest interest in this work for the past year, that some SG 17 participants could be found who could add something new.
f. It would appear to serve no purpose to redundantly pursue the extensive work done elsewhere and be wasteful of limited ITU-T resources. However, one party in the Correspondence Group – the SG17 Chair – believed that redundantly engaging in the same work was not an issue.
g. SG 17 could usefully work with the TSB to develop and maintain an ITU-T website on technical and operational standards, measures, and forums for Chile Online Protection.
Attachments: 3
· OECD (2011), “The Protection of Children Online: Risks Faced by Children Online and Policies to Protect Them”, OECD Digital Economy Papers, No. 179, OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5kgcjf71pl28-en · Companies unite to launch the first industry-led Europe-wide principles to enhance online safety for children.
· RESOLUTION 130 (Rev. Guadalajara, 2010); Strengthening the role of ITU in building confidence and security in the use of information and communication technologies.
RESOLUTION 179 (Guadalajara, 2010); ITU's role in child online protection.
