Internet abuse reporting service 'hanging on by a thread'

Children who fall victim to internet abuse need a clear and user-friendly system through which they can safely report what happened to them, Children's Commissioner Carmen Zammit has cautioned.

Since an EU-funded service for reporting internet abuse expired a year ago this vital service has been "hanging on by a thread" through the efforts of a few volunteers, Ms Zammit said.

As she called on relevant authorities to rekindle this service, she highlighted that, during the two years in which the EU-funded service was running, 294 illegal websites were reported.

Of these, 261 reports were on indecent material involving children and nine concerned other types of child abuse. A total of 89 reports were transmitted to the police.

In a statement, Ms Zammit outlined how a few years ago the government support agency Appoġġ, with the help of the IT Ministry, had applied for funds to fight internet child abuse.

The service was launched in July 2006 and had two functions: a hotline that fell within Appoġġ's already existing Supportline 179, and a link on the agency's website (www.appogg.gov.mt), where cases of internet child abuse could be reported.

When the project ended in February 2008 the European Commission turned down a request to renew it.

"This means there are currently no funds to provide a service... Children are being placed at constant risk, even when they are aware of how to make proper use of the internet," Ms Zammit stressed as she urged the authorities to step in and explore possibilities to continue the reporting service.

"It is vital that such a service is not suspended simply because funds from the European Commission are not forthcoming. Rather, this must be viewed as a responsibility to our children which does not depend on occasional EU funds," she added.

When contacted, a spokesman for Appoġġ explained that people could still call the support line 179 and report cases of internet abuse through the agency's website.

"Calls for help will not be turned away," the spokesman said.

However, whereas before (during the EU-funded service) there was staff dedicated to dealing with such cases, now calls for help were being seen to voluntarily by staff who did not have the time to focus solely on them.

Appoġġ was planning to apply for EU funds again, to rekindle the service, and had also asked for government funding but was waiting for a reply.

The growing incidence of internet paedophilia was raised last week when the European Parliament adopted a report that proposes to make soliciting children for sexual purposes on the internet a criminal offence across the EU. The report speaks about revising legislation to ensure that paedophile chat rooms are subject to harsh punishments.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to increase awareness about internet abuse, the Children's Commissioner and the Drama Unit within the Ministry of Education initiated a Theatre in Education Project entitled Face Space.

This project, which ran from January 21 until last Friday, aimed to educate children about various aspects of internet safety, including cyberbullying, and the dangers of revealing personal information online, particularly in chat rooms and on social networking websites.