Il n’y a pas de sirènes sur internet….

À: Dominique Lott

Cc: Maître Fritsch; Maître Mifsud

Objet: Il n’y a pas de sirènes sur internet….

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Monsieur le Maire,

J’ai lu l’article ci-dessus à votre sujet dans Le Parisien. (Text

Votre avocate a dit que vous avez « succombé aux sirènes d’Internet ». Ce qu’elle n’a pas dit, c’est qu’il n’y a pas de sirènes sur internet, du moins pas sur la partie d’internet où vous étiez. Dans la partie où vous êtes allé, il n’y a que des enfants victimes de violence sexuelle, et vous avez choisi de les voir comme des objets sexuels. Nous savons avec certitude qu’il y a 10 000 enfants violés et agressés sexuellement, parce que vous les avez vus, vous les avez délibérément téléchargés et vous les avez partagés avec le reste du monde, propagés leur douleur et leur souffrance.

J’ai aussi trouvé intéressante la façon dont vous avez réussi à tout ramener à vous. Vous avez démissionné comme maire, vous allez voir un psychologue et, bien sûr, vous avez plaidé coupable et déclaré « Ça ne sert à rien de le nier », mais pour nier quoi exactement? Nier que vous avez délibérément cherché ces dossiers de viol et de sodomie? Nier que vous avez expressément installé un logiciel spécial pour accéder à ces fichiers? Nier que vous avez utilisé des mots clés pour rechercher des dossiers d’abus sexuels d’enfants aussi jeunes que 8 ans? Nier que les dossiers que vous cherchiez contiennent l’abus sexuel le plus choquant d’un vrai enfant quelque part dans le monde ? Nier avoir trouvé ça excitant sexuellement ? Nier que vous avez délibérément contribué à la propagation et à la diffusion de ce matériel dans le monde entier pour attaquer la dignité et le bien-être de ces jeunes gosses? Que votre désir de vous masturber vous a fait oublier que c’était contre le Code criminel, le Code social et le Code de la nature lui-même ?

En tant que maire d’Echenon, vous étiez un pilier de votre communauté. Un agent de l’État et un Officier de Police Judiciaire. On pourrait dire que vous avez un rôle spécial à jouer dans la protection des personnes vulnérables de votre ville, comme les enfants. Mais ces enfants n’étaient pas dans votre communauté, ce qui rendait plus facile de voir leur douleur et leur souffrance, de les voir sexuellement et de vous faire plaisir. Il est clair que vous voyez les enfants comme des objets sexuelle et donc vous devez être considéré comme un risque pour eux. Et pour tous les enfants, y compris ceux de votre propre famille.

Des Sirènes et beaucoup d’autres créatures fantastiques comme des licornes et des phénix existent sur l’internet surtout lié à Harry Potter. Une des autres créatures qui exist est un détraqueur. Ce sont des monstres qui se nourrissent du bonheur des humains, laissant derrière eux que la dépression, la tristesse et l’anxiété. Peut-être que Maitre Élodie Mifsud aurait dû utiliser la métaphore d’un détraqueur plutôt  qu’une sirène pour justifier vos activités en ligne.

Dominique Lott. Photo by LBP/Bruno THIEBERGIEN
Dominique Lott. Photo archives LBP/Bruno THIEBERGIEN

Même le procureur demande une peine avec sursis pour vous. Je ne pense pas que vous le méritiez. En vous faisant passer pour une victime des sirènes et des dangers d’Internet dans cette affaire, nous ignorons les vraies victimes. Ce sont les enfants prépubères dans les fichiers que vous avez obtenus exprès en ligne. Vous devriez aller en prison et le tribunal devrait ordonner que l’on retrace chacun de ces enfants et qu’on leur donne la possibilité de vous poursuivre pour atteinte à leur dignité et atteinte à leur vie privée. Ce n’est qu’à ce moment-là que justice sera rendue.

Veuillez recevoir, Monsieur/Madame, mes salutations distinguées

Mick

the language of child abuse

They say you can’t have an omelette without breaking eggs.  Similarly, you can’t have child pornography[1] without abusing a child; a real child, being real abused.

With this in mind, most professionals working in this area no longer use the term child pornography and use instead the term child sexual abuse material or CSAM. 

This makes it instantly recognisable for what it is, photo, video and text depictions of a child or children being sexually abused.  From the mid 1980’s countries began to make this material illegal through strong legislation that reflected societies abhorrence at the fact that it existed at all and the advent of the internet accelerated this process.  The UN, the Council of Europe and the EU all have strong legal instruments in place for their members.

In policing circles, we have worked hard to “re-see” this material as crime scenes in themselves rather than just evidence of crime for the person possessing or distributing it.  It is only right that we put children first and work to identify the child in the material, to stop the abuse as early as possible.  It is also right to see the material from the child’s perspective and not that of the abuser.  Abusers, including those who possess and distribute the documented abuse, see it as pornography, designed to titillate sexually, to arouse.  We must take that “regard” away by removing the word pornography. 

This is all contained in the Luxembourg Guidelines[2] a terminology guide to harmonise the terms and definitions related to child protection.  You will find this discussion on page 38.

Calling it porn denigrates the actors who “star” in these blockbusters, those human beings who did not consent, were not rewarded and who suffer life changing mental and sometimes physical scars. 

By calling it Child Sexual Abuse Material you acknowledge the reality for the child, remind the degenerate who made it what they’ve done and signal your and societies’ disgust that they stoop so low in our name.

You choose.


[1] As defined in the Directive 2011/93/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography

[2] Pulled together by ECPAT Luxembourg after significant input from a large number of experts in the area of child rights and child protection. http://luxembourgguidelines.org/

some companies care about child safety and some…..

……and so it has come to pass.  The ePrivacy directive kicked in on the 20th of December.  This means two things – people have more privacy, a good thing and children are less safe online, not a good thing.

As explained in previous posts the ePrivacy directive coming into full force on the 20th of December means that companies who were voluntarily scanning for Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) and patterns of Grooming could interpret the change as making their scanning activities illegal.

There is an active effort to bring in a regulatory framework that will cover these voluntary actions but this will take time and so a temporary derogation for a small number of articles was requested.   It is still under consideration by the EU Parliament, the EU Commission and the EU Council.

In the meantime, some companies have stood up and declared they not stop these efforts to keep children online while the political process continues.   These companies are Microsoft, Google, Linkedin, YUBO and ROBLOX.  Well done to all of you. 

Other companies have not stood up. We don’t know what they are doing because apart from Facebook they are saying nothing.

Facebook has declared that they will switch off scanning.  In a post on their blog they use a lot of language to basically say that they are choosing privacy over child safety.  This is a disappointing and strange decision given that they have been to the forefront of voluntary actions in the past.  At least they told us.  What of other companies?  The big ones? 

The political process continues, here is what you can do:

Talk to your local representatives and MEPs – list here .

and if you work for or use companies who provide online services other than those listed above, ask them stopping or continuing?

time is running out…..

There is 7 days to go until the ePrivacy regulation comes into force in the EU.  It actually passed in 2018 but member countries were given 2 years to prepare and so it “goes live” on 20th of December 2020.  [1] A temporary derogation applied for by the Commision has passed committe stage and now must get a reading in the plenary before being the subject of a trilogue. Is all this possible in 7 days?

Because it’s a regulation rather than a directive, it effectively supersedes existing law in member countries and therefore any laws passed locally since 2002 to meet the ePrivacy directive are effectively repealed.

The regulation, aimed at companies providing communication services in the EU, seeks to guarantee privacy through ensuring no interference or tracking of communications for marketing or other purposes.

One of the key unintended consequences of this regulation is that voluntary actions by the same companies to find, remove and report Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) or Grooming activities on their networks will stop because companies cannot risk that they will be seen as illegal.

These voluntary actions are hard fought chips in the self-regulation wall that activists and advocates, even within the companies themselves, have achieved.  Stopping them in this manner is ridiculous and reduces the safeguarding opportunities for children being actively harmed.  Companies scan for CSAM with advanced technologies to ensure the privacy of their users in the same way they find, remove and report SPAM and malware.  Comparisons to someone at the post office opening every letter “IRL” are facetious and unhelpful.

Child abuse communication, whether grooming or CSAM, universally happens in private and the only people who know about it are the child and the abuser.  When the abuser shares the material there is an increased chance that it will be found, removed and reported to the police who can then take action to make the child safe.  There are very few other ways for people to find out about the abuse and help the child.

In an effort to avoid this unintended consequence the EU Commission has put a temporary derogation before EU lawmakers to stay just two articles within the regulation that will allow the voluntary actions to continue in the area of child abuse online only until they can get the law needed in place.  This temporary derogation has passed the committee stage and now will get its first reading in the EU Parliament then move into a formal “trilogue” or interinstitutional talks. 

The question is when?  The EU Parliament meets next week in plenary.  Will they do the first reading then?  When will the Trilogue meeting take place?  How long will it take?  Will they have this finalised and passed (without too much dilution) by 20th of December? 

I certainly hope so.

Here is what you can do:

Sign the petition

Talk to your local representatives and MEPs – list here .

Support your local InHope Hotline

Read more and see the supporting evidence of what stops if this derogation fails to pass here.


[1] It’s full name is actually “Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the respect for private life and the protection of personal data in electronic communications and repealing Directive 2002/58/EC (Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications)” and it repeals the ePrivacy Directive of 2002.  

on voluntary actions to combat child sexual abuse

Companies exist to make money for their shareholders and it’s important to remember that when we discuss what they do to deal with anything bad that happens on their network.  That includes Facebook, Google, Twitter et al.

They have grown in a low-regulation environment, which was encouraged by governments all over the world. So dealing with the dark-side of social media and the human condition was always going to be a hard sell to their boards as it costs money and is the antithesis of profit making.  See line one of this post.

Unlike the EU, the USA brought in regulation relating to the online facilitation of child sexual abuse through a law stating that when a company is aware of Child Sexual Abuse Material and Grooming on their network they will report it to NCMEC.

NCMEC processes these reports and sends the “cybertips” to law enforcement all over the world for action.  These cybertips have saved lives and helped remove countless children from harm all over the world.

So, how does a company become aware of CSAM or grooming on their network?  Users reports, sure, but in most cases they are actively scanning their systems for evidence of it in the same way they do for viruses or malware. There are “voluntary actions”.

When the ePrivacy directive comes into force on the 21st of December of this year those “voluntary actions will stop – dead.

The EU commission wants to bring in a law similar to the US law and the procedure to report (EU Style NCMEC) and so has applied for a limited temporary derogation from a number of articles (5 (1) and 6)  in the ePrivacy directive that will maintain the status quo until new law can be drafted.

This derogation is currently under consideration at the European Parliament. If it passes, the status quo remains while the EU Commission prepares regulation in the form of law for 2021/22. If it fails, the voluntary action by these companies stop and there will be less children saved or removed from dangerous situations.

Here’s what you can do, as soon as possible:

Sign the petition

Further reading/ watching:

Talk to your local representatives and MEPs – list here .

Support your local InHope Hotline

Read more and see the supporting evidence of what stops if this derogation fails to pass here.

the derogation – a summary

This is an explainer the derogation being sought by the European Commision to Articles 5(1) and 6 of the ePrivacy Directive about to be updated by the Electronic Communication Code.  It’s a little technical and lawyerly but then all good legislation is.  This is my understanding of it and is subject to change since I’m not a lawyer.

The ePrivacy directive was issued in 2002 and with GDPR needed updating and this happened in 2018 as the European Electronic Communication Code.  It is a directive and all member countries must transpose it – make it law in their countries.  Failure to do this can result in legal action.

Now, countries had two years to transpose it and so all of the provisions of the EECC kick in on the 21st December 2020.  Definitions of electronic communications services and privacy will change and will include what are called “number-independent interpersonal communications services”.  This will include webmail, messaging services and IP telephony.  Essentially, therefore companies (such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft et al. who are now doing voluntary actions to find, report and remove Child Sexual Abuse Material and to find Groomers within their networks would run the risk of exposure to prosecution if they continued.

The derogation is simply a legal request to stay articles 5(1) and 6 of the ePrivacy for a short period while the commission gets a legal framework into place to allow companies to continue scanning for CSAM and Grooming activity. In other words, it’s asking tha tthe status quo remain in place for activities aimed at

The discussions as to whether the derogation will be allowed is ongoing and this is why we need to act now. 

As already stated, if the derogation is not accepted or is watered down, there is a major risk that all efforts currently being made to find, report and remove CSAM and Grooming stop.

Here is what you can do to help:

Sign the petition

Further reading/ watching:

Talk to your local representatives and MEPs – list here .

Support your local InHope Hotline

Read more and see the supporting evidence of what stops if this derogation fails to pass here.

Read the excellent analysis of John Carr in his blog here, here and here