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[FYI] (Fwd) [NEWS] Global crackdown needed




------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Wed, 28 Feb 2001 19:12:17 -0500
From:           	Andrew Shen <shen@epic.org>
Subject:        	[NEWS] Global crackdown needed
To:             	gilc-plan@gilc.org
Send reply to:  	gilc-plan@gilc.org


http://www.msnbc.com/news/536720.asp?cp1=1

Global crackdown needed
G8 ministers call for major fight against Internet crime

MILAN, Italy, Feb. 27 - Justice and interior ministers from the
world's leading industrialized nations are urging a global crackdown
against crime and child pornography on the Internet.

The group urged experts to set up a G8 database to allow countries to
pool their resources on fighting crime on the Internet.

THE GROUP OF EIGHT ministers said while the Internet had brought many
benefits, the rise of hi-tech crime was worrying.

"We urge that a solution be found to locate and identify criminals who
use network communications for illegal purposes," said a final
statement after their meeting in Milan.

"We stress in particular the alarming expansion of child sexual
exploitation...online," the statement said.

Japanese parliamentarians say their country is among the largest
markets for child pornography, with a large chunk of Internet
pornography produced there.

The G8 ministers welcomed Japan's initiative to review the problem and
to host the second World Congress Against Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children in Yokohama in December.

The ministers expressed support for the Lyon group of experts on
transnational organized crime, set up by the G8 in 1996 to cooperate
against high-tech crime.

They also urged the finalization of a draft Council of Europe
convention on cyber crime. The Council has been working for more than
a decade on the treaty, which U.S. civil liberties groups have
criticized as infringing individual privacy.

INTERNET BUSINESS BOOM FOR THE MAFIA

The group urged experts to set up a G8 database to allow countries to
pool their resources on fighting crime on the Internet, which has
opened borders and opportunities for criminal groups such as the
Sicilian Mafia.

The ministers also discussed illegal migration, human trafficking and
xenophobia.

Italian Interior Minister Enzo Bianco said the EU needed a common
border police to combat illegal immigration and called for more
cooperation with the migrants' home countries and transit countries.

Immigration, racism and xenophobia have become increasingly emotive
issues as the rise of the far right in Europe sits uncomfortably with
waves of would-be immigrants fleeing oppression or seeking a better
life.

The Milan meeting - which also touched on drug trafficking and money
laundering - urged the implementation of an ambitious U.N. treaty
against organized crime signed in Palermo last year.

The G8 - Russia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and
the United States - holds a summit in Genoa in July.


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