Gardaí to trace porn sources

GARDAÍ will be able to trace those responsible for distributing a pornographic picture of a schoolgirl via mobile phones.

Phone companies are required by law to retain traffic data for three years, enabling the Gardaí to identify the time, date and origin of calls and messages.

The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner said this would be a relatively straightforward procedure. However, despite this ability to track down offenders, it is recognised that technological solutions are needed to prevent the problem from growing.

Both the National Children’s Homes charity in Britain and the Cork-based Combating Paedophile Information Networks in Europe (COPINE) have warned that mobile phone pornography will be a huge future problem.

Two Dublin-based firms, Telcotec and Alatto, have developed products which can filter offending pictures or restrict childen to a safe group of contacts.

Telcotec’s software filters the pictures being transmitted to a phone, using 800 mathematical formulas. If the picture has suspicious characteristics, such as a high level of flesh tones or legs in unorthodox positions, it is automatically blocked.

Telcotec chief executive Fran Fanning believes this technology could have prevented the spread of the pornographic image of a Cork schoolgirl, which was sent via camera phones to hundreds of people in Cork, Limerick and Kerry.

She said similar pornography on picture phones would become rampant if action was not taken. “There’s nothing that will stop this from happening completely because sex sells, but we can put controls in places that will discourage people from doing it and make them think twice.”

Around 90% of children aged 12 and over have mobile phones, as well as half of those aged under 12.

Mobile phones can be used in private, unlike internet PCs in the home, according to software firm, Alatto’s marketing director John Fallon. “Parents fear their own kids might be sending out stuff. Our technology is all about giving parents control,” he said.

Alatto’s Pal Guard system restricts phone users to calls and picture messages from an approved ‘buddy group’. Parents can also monitor the picture messages sent and received by their children by going to a website.

However, Alatto and Telcotec will require the co-operation of the phone companies, who control the products and services available on their network.