A

IMSCIIUnited Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

Organisation des Nations Unies pour I’Education, la Science et la Culture

Expert Meeting on :
Sexual Abuse of Children, Child Pornography and
Paedophilia on the lnternet :
an international challenge
UNESCO, Paris, Room II, 18-19 Juanary 1999

Child Pornography on the lnternet

BY

Dr ULLA Carlsson
UNESCO International

Clearing House on Children and Violence on the Screen

Nodicom, University of Giiterborg

(The author is responsible for the choice and presentation of the facts contained in this paper
and for the opinions expressed therein , which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do
not commit the Organisation).

Cll-98/CONF.605/11 (E)
 Child Pornography on the lnternet Research and information: Sensitisation of the
Public

By Ulla Carlsson
- ..

We stand on the threshold of a new century, indeed, a new millennium, and we find
ourselves in a veritable whirlwind of change. In a number of respects we may truly speak of
the emergence of a new world order - and a new world media order, as well. in an historical
perspective the decades we are presently experiencing will one day be looked back to as a
decisive juncture, having worldwide implications.
The 1990s have seen comprehensive restructuring of markets around the world. We have
experienced deregulation, privatisation, concentration of ownership, commercialization and -
not least - technological advances. Central to all of this is the process of globalisation. That
is to say, national markets are becoming increasingly integrated into a single global power
structure, and national frontiers are losing their significance in many respects. The process is
particularly pronounced when it comes to media of mass communication, where
technological innovations - communications satellites, digitisation, “electronic
superhighways” - and deregulation of, for example, the telecommunications sector have
fueled and propelled the globalisation process. Information flows ever more freely. The ‘new
order’ makes it possible for people all over the world to partake of sounds and images from
other parts of the world. Meanwhile, the mass cultural products of a relatively few media
corporations, based primarily in the USA, Europe and Japan - reach a larger number and
broader range of consumers around the world than ever before.
New media technology will change the premises for the functions media serve in society.
Yet, we should not lose sight of the fact that perhaps half of the people of the world will not
have access to the new digital “superhighways”. In short, we face some fundamental issues
regarding the future development of our societies.

The rights of the child and the media

It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the most vulnerable individuals in this world of
globalised media are our children. The changes we see - present and coming - profoundly
influence their lives and circumstances.
Media content raises some vital issues. For years, many people have expressed concern
regarding the effect of the media, and not least television, on their audiences, especially on
children and young people. Violent media content has been a particular concern.
Unfortunately, the proliferation of media output today has meant that violence and
pornography are more pervasive than ever before, and there is considerable worry - among
parents, teachers and policy makers - as to how such content may influence young people.
Many people suspect a correlation between the rising level of violence in daily life,
particularly that committed by children and youth, and the culture of violence our children
encounter on television, in video films, in computer games and via Internet.
Different ways to limit this content - through legislation and through self-regulation - are
being discussed in many countries and within regional bodies like the European Union.
Efforts are made to open dialogues between public authorities, media companies and the
concerned public with a view to establishing consensus concerning certain basic principles.
Article 17 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides an international
framework for this work. Article 17 makes reference both to children’s right to access to
information and sources and the need to “encourage de development of appropriate

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guidelines for the protection of the child from information and material injurious to his or her
well-being”. Many voices urge a follow-up of the Convention as it bears on mass media, that
is, a discussion in the international political arena based on national experiences to date.
Our society is a ‘knowledge society’. Knowledge has become one of our most vital resources
- alongside energy, raw materials and capital. A broad emphasis on education and research
is needed to meet the problems and r’hallenges of our increasingly internationalized
societies.
Given broadened access to international media output, various international fora, not least
those within the framework of UNESCO, have called for more effective information efforts to
promote a better understanding of issues relating to children and media violence. Behind
these calls lies an implicit faith that greater knowledge will steer us clear of stereotyped
arguments and simplistic models. Greater knowledge also facilitates and guides various
measures to combat gratuitous violence. In short, knowledge is prerequisite to effective
action. For basic information on children and media violence we turn to the cumulative
findings of scientific research on the subject in different parts of the world.
Constructive public debate and fruitful use of existing knowledge require organizations which
document of research findings and current research. But this alone is not enough. In
addition, there is a need of so-called information brokers, who can evaluate information
according to scientific criteria and ‘translate’ it - make it accessible to various user groups,
whose background and objectives - and therefore also needs and expectations - differ.
This perceived need for knowledge gave rise to the idea of creating an international
clearinghouse on the subject of children and media violence. The idea was discussed in
international fora on several occasions during the 1990s but was given especial emphasis at
a conference on the rights of children arranged in 1995 by the Swedish Commission for
UNESCO in cooperation with the Swedish Committee for UNICEF. The Government of
Sweden expressed interest in the venture, and in 1996 Nordicom - the Nordic Information
Centre for Media and Communication Research - was asked to organize such an
international research and information clearinghouse on the subject.
In 1997, Nordicom commenced work to create the UNESCO International Clearinghouse on
Children and Media Violence on the Screen, a project jointly financed by the Government of
Sweden and UNESCO. The objective of the Clearinghouse is to contribute to and effectivize
knowledge about children, young people and media violence, seen in the perspective of the
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Our prime task is to make new scientific
knowledge and data known to prospective users - researchers, policy-makers, media
professionals, teachers, voluntary organizations and interested individuals - all over the
world.
It is our conviction that constructive policy and effective practice presuppose access to and
use of the knowledge and experience accumulated to date.
The focus of the work of the Clearinghouse rests on the effects of media violence on children
and young people. Knowledge on this subject is particularly important in an age when the
economic and cultural importance of mass media already looms large and continues to grow
day by day.
In practice, the aims of the Clearinghouse are three-fold: to attract attention to the question
of violence on the screen and its role in the lives of children and young people, to stimulate
initiatives and activities that combat gratuitous violence, and to help provide a better basis
for policy in the field. Toward these ends, the Clearinghouse collates and documents studies
of violent representations in televised fiction, in television news and current events
programming, in feature films, in video and computer games, as well as in the images and
texts which are available via Internet, etc. We also document measures taken to reduce the

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amount of detrimental violence in television programmes and films and instances of
affirmative action which show positive alternatives to media violence.
The Clearinghouse is user-oriented, which means that our services are offered in response
to demand and should be adapted to the needs of our clients. The Clearinghouse has the
character of a ‘network central’. Today the network comprises nearly 800 people and
institutions - mainly in different branches of research, in the media industries, in politics and
public administration, as well as in non-governmental organizations, as well as regional
branches of the network itself. Altogether 145 countries are represented.
Four issues of the Clearinghouse Newsletter, which provides information of a topical nature,
have been published to date.
In March 1998, we were pleased to present the first Yearbook from the Clearinghouse. The
articles in this first issue relate primarily to research on the effects of children’s exposure to
violence on television. We considered it of value to collect scientific work on this subject in a
single volume, and we were gratified that so many leading scholars in the field were willing to
contribute to it. The result assembles many interesting articles based on findings of research
projects carried out in different countries and regions. Whereas research on children and
media violence has been extensive, it has proven difficult to reconcile the results, some of
which have appeared to be quite contradictory. Moreover, violence takes many forms and
has many different effects. We hope that this first Yearbook will extend our common
understanding of what research has to say on the subject.

Research on children, media and violence

Like most research in the social sciences and humanities, research on media violence
ultimately relates to the fundamental question of free will. To what degree are we human
beings products of our environments - of parents, schools, friends, media, religion and social
structures - and to what extent do we act indpendently, exercising our own free will? Thus,
two perspectives are at play here, and they apply to greater or lesser extents to the various
studies of media violence.
Traditionally, research has focused on the effects of media violence on aggressive and/or
violent behaviour on the part of children and youth. The findings of this research can be
summarized in two points:
* Depictions of violence can lead to imitation among younger children, but generally it is
only a question of short-term impulses. Older children can get ‘tips’ as to how to go about
committing acts of
violence, knowledge which they may use when the occasion - a critical situation of one kind
or another - arises. But the media are not to blame for the occurrence of the critical situation.

*
The media provide impulses, which then blend in with all our other ideas, emotions,
norms, values and experiences. Often, these latter ingredients are more important than the
impressions the media contribute, but it is the combination of all these things that increases
or decreases our propensity to act in a given way. In this indirect and supplementary manner
the media have been shown to contribute to heightened aggression - in some individuals,
under certain conditions. Painting in very broad strokes, I might mention that according to
recent longitudinal studies, i.e., studies which follow
the same individuals under a number of years, roughly 10 per cent of the increment noted in
children’s and young people’s aggression is attributable to media violence, whereas 90 per
cent is a consequence of other factors.

Research has also established that both fictional and non-fictional depictions of violence
elicit fear in many children and young people.

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And there are indications that media violence gives young people unrealistic ideas about
violence in real life. Watching action films, for example, has been shown to lead children to
believe that the human body is much tougher, less delicate, than it actually is, which in turn
has the effect that they cannot foresee or understand the very serious damage that physical
abuse - blows and kicks - can do.
In some individuals the fear, the ideas about violence, and the feeling of being under threat
which media violence instills combine to form a general predisposition, which may be
transformed into destructive aggressive behaviour in critical situations.
These are the conclusions of years of behavioural research reported in the Clearinghouse’
Yearbook. But our Yearbook also makes it clear that research on media violence is not a
universal phenomenon, but rather is something done in only certain areas of the world -
mainly in North America, in Western Europe (mainly the more northerly countries), and in
Japan and Australia. In most other countries, such studies have been few or non-existent.
Reading through the Yearbook also makes it quite apparent that it is difficult to generalize
research findings between countries and cultures. That is to say, the specific cultural
context is very important. Perhaps some of us in Europe were a bit hasty in drawing
conclusions from American research findings on media violence in the 1970s and 1980s.
And, as a consequence, perhaps we have some inaccurate ideas about the actual influence
of such violence in our particular cultures.
Today, globalization calls for more comparative, international studies of children and the
media, i.e., research performed in several countries simultaneously, so that we may gain a
proper understanding of the role of the media and effects of media violence in our children’s
lives. We still know all too little about children and media violence, in an era when media
output - and depictions of violence - continue to proliferate.

Digital profusion
Our cultures are currently experiencing a new phase of the digitisation process. Technology
is changing the options available to media audiences, and we are expected to choose what
we consume to a far greater extent. Consider, for example, that only twenty years ago
viewers in Sweden had access to only two national channels. One consequence of this
proliferation of channels and sources of information and culture is a fragmentisation and
individualisation of the audience - our shared experience of mass media is shrinking, which
means that our common frame of reference concerning society around us is weakened.
lnternet is generally singled out as the most striking illustration of the ‘digital revolution’.
lnternet is now making the transition into a new phase - from being considered a technology
to repreenting a medium of information and communication. More and more, lnternet seems
to be a medium that is accessible to many, a medium that is not schedule-bound, but which
consists of a continuous flow. In many respects, lnternet is a medium for the young.
It is clear to us at the Clearinghouse that violent content has found its way to ‘the net’, and it
is relatively easy to gain access to such material. The violence is both fictional and
documentary. Thus, lnternet is yet another channel of communication through which we are
exposed to gratuitous violence; clearly, the violent content available there must be studied
on a par with other media’s output. This is a new task for media scholars.
We also note the increasing presence of violence of another kind on satellite television
channels and on Internet. I am referring to the violence in pornographic films and images.
Professor Joe Groebel, has shown how easy it is to access sadistic pornography on the
lnternet - particularly via ‘news groups’. The kinds of violence perpetrated against women in
this content represent an important component in the social structures which would keep
women inferior to men. These kinds of violence require somewhat different approaches and

4
methods of analysis than have generally been applied in traditional studies of media
violence. Media researchers have not focused on such content and the issues it raises to
any appreciable extent.
We have seen remarkably few studies of the effects of pornography on those who view it,
and we know even less about the effects on young and very young viewers. Studies of
sadistic pornography are even rarer. -But the possibility that violent pornography may lead
some men to commit rape is rather widely debated in many societies today.
In this connection it is also important to point out that we hardly know anything about how
media depictions of sex influence children. Content analyses tell us, however, that sex
scenes are much more common on television today than they were only a decade or so ago.
How might this influence young viewers’ attitudes, values and behaviour? We should have
the benefit of answers to that question when we set about studying the effects of viewing
pornography.
The issue of pornography on lnternet automatically leads us to the issue of child
pornography on the net. Both the distribution and possession of child pornography are
criminal offences in most countries today. The problem has aroused considerable attention
in recent years, both in media coverage and among law enforcement authorities. Effective
cooperation between national police forces aims to track down and arrest offenders, but also
to monitor media content. In addition, some major organisations - regional bodies such as
the European Union and interest organizations like ECPAT - have also taken initiatives.
Finally, a mass movement is mobilising on different levels in the world community to combat
sexual exploitation of minors, child pornography and paedophilia on Internet.
That lnternet is used to distribute child pornography is indisputable. The net is used to
reproduce and disseminate child pornography, but also as a vehicle for soliciting and
procuring. The rapidity, economy and simplicity of the medium has effectivised the
distribution of child poronography immensely. The net’s global reach implies unprecedented
conditions for effectively spreading illegal images. At the same time, we should bear in mind
that “Internet” is comprised of several different fora - World Wide Web, Usenet and IRC
among them. Arrests and confiscations have been made, mainly in ‘news groups’ on
Usenet. Self-regulation seems to be more effective among the websites.
Child pornography via lnternet has proven much more elusive than other pornographic
material; this is due to the fact that child pornography is socially unacceptable and illegal.
Preserving one’s anonymity seems to be a prime interest among those who exchange illegal
matter via the net. Nonetheless, as Professor Groebel’s study confirms, any reasonably
skilled lnternet user can find child pornographic content.
It is in cases where lnternet serves as a medium of mass communication that mass
communication researchers have important tasks. They can analyze the content and
determine its effects on users - adults and children alike. But they should also explore the
possibilities for the information society to, via self-regulation, come to terms with a new
media landscape. Conceivably, unless dealt with effectively, the presence of child
pornography on the net may call the legitimacy of free, uncontrolled flows of information - the
raison d’etre of lnternet itself - into question.

Research on child pornography on Internet. A larger complex

But the problem which UNESCO and this conference address is considerably broader than
that. It might be formulated thus: What role does the presence and accessibility of child
pornography on lnternet play with respect to the problem of sexual exploitation and sexual
abuse of children in the world today. The problem is much broader, deeper - and much more
serious: the possibility that child pornography on lnternet may lead to more widespread

5
sexual exploitation of minors. Addressing this problem will require the commitment and
collaboration of many different disciplines and professions: psychology, sociology,
criminology, law, political science, religion, philosophy, etc. Media researchers are but one -
in this context perhaps even peripheral - discipline among many that can contribute to
casting light on and combatting such a complex problem as the sexual abuse of children.
Something discussed on the periphery of public debate is the possibility of adverse effects
on young lnternet users who come in contact with the illegal material and , secondly, the
question of effects on adults: It is in relation to questions like these that mass communication
researchers can, together with psychologists and criminologists, provide new insights. A
number of aspects must be taken into account - cognitive, emotional, attitudinal, behavioural,
etc. Systematic studies that apply a battery of methods are called for: laboratory
experiments, observations, surveys, followed by more comprehensive longitudinal studies. A
first, decisive question is how this kind of research can best be facilitated. So far, conditions
have not been the best. UNESCO, with its wealth of experience in scientific research, would
seem well equipped to initiate highly relevant multinational and multidisciplinary research
projects.
But before we can study the effects of pornography, sadistic pornography and child
pornography, we need to know more about what is available - its accessibility, the content -
and how many and which people consume it, as well as the circumstances under which they
do so. Studies of these kinds have been few and far between to date.
We at the International Clearinghouse will naturally do everything we can to stimulate such
research and to make research findings known so as to increase our collective and
cumulative knowledge of how children and young people use and are affected by viewing
sadistic pornography and child pornography. Ultimately, it is a question of safeguarding
children’s rights, and in this work we are guided by Article 17 of the Convention on the Rights
of the Child, which enjoins us to ensure children’s access to information and material of
social and cultural benefit to them, whilst protecting them from material that is injurious to
their well-being.