Abu Dhabi: The UAE has been hailed for its pre-emptive strike in the fight against online child exploitation, as the only Arab country signed up to a global taskforce to combat the problem.
A major international summit on internet child abuse, hosting experts and crimefighters from across the globe, came to a close in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.
Praising UAE efforts to tackle the issue, experts at the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT) conference described the UAE’s membership of the VGT, and hosting of the event, as a “pre-emptive strike” on sexual crimes against children online.
It was also pointed out that the phenomenon has not yet surfaced in the UAE.
Interpol Criminal Intelligence Officer, at the Trafficking in Human Beings Sub-Directorate, Bjorn-Erik Ludvigsen, said: “One thing I was glad to see here, is that the UAE has a stop page which says that the website has been blocked because it goes against UAE laws and ethics.
“This is a very important step in making internet users aware that content is unavailable for a reason, and is a much better approach than simply hiding content behind an error page like some internet service providers would do.
“There is a huge lobby against blocking websites. Yet, preventive policing is better and cheaper for many of the authorities involved.
“It also protects victims’ rights, prevents criminal access, posession and distribution of unlawful material and prevents harmful exposure to such content,” Ludvigsen said.
The Interpol official highlighted the industrial aspect of child pornography and stated that if obtaining material pertaining to sexual abuse of chlidren was made difficult, there would be a reduction in crimes.
Ludvigsen said: “Cyber crimes are every country’s issue because the internet is not bound by geography and if some material is accessible to a person in a certain location, then his or her nation is reponsible to prevent others from having the same access to the illegal content.”
Vice President of Regulatory Operations at Etisalat, Rayyan Al Hashmi, urged UAE residents to come forward and report to them any concerns that might arise while online.
Al Hashmi said: “If any internet users within the UAE would like to report a website which they believe is inappropriate, they can fill a form on the Etisalat website which allows them to file a report on the website.
“Whereas if users wish that a website gets unblocked, they could click on a link on the website’s stop-page where they can file their request to be examined.”
The three day conference saw lectures, discussions and examinations of case studies and statistics as Interpol, crime fighting agencies, international experts and local agencies came together to tackle the vital issue.
