Rosie Cowan
Global force to 'patrol' chatrooms
Thu Jun 10, 2004 02:48
64.140.158.65

Global force to 'patrol' chatrooms

Rosie Cowan
Thursday June 10, 2004
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1235093,00.html

British "cybercops" are to join other law enforcers around the world which are patrolling internet chatrooms to try to protect children from pedophiles.

Assistant chief constable Jim Gamble, of the national crime squad, said the move was one of several measures to clamp down on adults using computers to view child pornography and "groom" children in order to abuse them. The Virtual Global Taskforce, which includes the NCS, the FBI, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Australian Federal Police, and Interpol, will nominate officers to monitor the net round the clock.

This will not entail undercover police posing as children to lure paedophiles but will involve a virtual version of "reassurance policing": there will be an icon, flashing in the corner of the screen, to let chatroom participants know an officer is monitoring the online messages. The officer will be able to intervene to warn those engaging in suspect conversations.

"We're already policing the internet covertly, now we'll be doing it overtly as well. It's about shining a light into a dark corner," Mr Gamble said.

Children's charities applauded the move but critics suggested it would be impossible to police a significant percentage of the millions using chatrooms.

However, Mr Gamble said the operation would be intelligence-led, and involve a small number of officers working with the internet service providers.

Police are also examining the possibility of a credit-card blacklist identifying those who have used credit cards to pay for child pornography on the net.

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Nick Berg Continues as Number One Search Term with Web Users; Teen Actress Lindsay Lohan, More Popular than Hilary Duff, Jessica Simpson and Olsen Twins; Celebrity Blogger "Rance," One To Watch
Wednesday June 2, 7:30 am ET
The Lycos 50 for Week Ending May 29, 2004
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040602/new008_1.html


Notes of Interest:

The Nick Berg (#1) killing continues to resonate with Web users for the third week in a row, while the War in Iraq (#3) also remains top of mind with Web users. Meanwhile, the American Idol (#10) finale once again put Idol in the top 10 on this week's list and also catapulted Idol winner Fantasia Barrino (#46) into The Lycos 50 for the first time. But search activity for the show's finale is actually down compared to last year. During this same time period in 2003, American Idol's finale show resulted in Idol landing at number two, generating 80 percent more search activity than this year. And unlike past and present Idol contestants, Clay Aiken (#2) is the only Idol who continues to dominate Web search activity, rising again this week to the number two spot.

Other Notes of Interest:

Lindsay Lohan (#8) continues to rise in popularity with Web users, hitting her highest rank this week. The Mean Girls star is now generating twice as many searches as Hilary Duff (#23) and Jessica Simpson (#25) and three times more searches than the Olsen Twins (#34).

Hollywood Buzzing Over Rance's Blog:

Search activity for celebrity blogger "Rance" continues to rise, although still not enough to make The Lycos 50. Rance has Hollywood buzzing over his blog, located at http://captainhoof.tripod.com/blog , spawning a cult-like following on the Web with people speculating over who "Rance" really is. Some believe Rance could be Owen Wilson, Ben Affleck, Jim Carrey or even George Clooney. Rance's blog has been described as a "jaundiced insider's eye in chronicling the life of a Hollywood celebrity," giving a very detailed look at the inner most workings of Hollywood.

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