DENVER (CO)
Crux
October 5, 2017
By John L. Allen Jr.
At an Oct. 3-6 summit at Rome’s Gregorian University, with the support of the Vatican, on efforts to keep children safe in the digital world, there’s been a lot of talk about the massiveness of the challenges. In that context, speakers from New Hampshire have provided a badly-needed dose of hope, insisting that data show smartly-crafted and long-term programs to help children actually do make a difference.
Rome – New Hampshire is the lone state among the original 13 American colonies in which no Revolutionary War battle was fought, but militias from the “Live Free or Die” state did play key roles in several turning points in the struggle for independence, including helping the Continental Army win the Battle of Saratoga.
Perhaps that background helps explain why the New Hampshire contingent at an Oct. 3-6 summit at Rome’s Gregorian University devoted to “Child Dignity in the Digital Age” has been the most emphatic voice of optimism, insisting that the struggle against child abuse and exploitation online is not only a battle that can be fought, but it can be won.
From the beginning of the conference, one strong thrust has been to sound alarms about the massive dimensions of child abuse online.
Tim Morris, Executive Director of Police Services for Interpol, told participants that the “incidents” the global law enforcement agency flagged in 2016 – meaning a lewd comment on-line, an upload of offensive material, an attempt to lure a young person into sexual situations, and so on – amounted to 2.3 million on 15 notorious websites they monitor.
In the first eight months of 2017, he said, Interpol has already logged 3 million incidents.
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