Software spy line nabs internet porn traders

By PETER GRIFFIN

Computer software that tracks web surfers who enter certain internet chat channels is helping to catch traders in child pornography.

The software is used only in New Zealand but has helped to bust international porn pedlars.

Previously, Internal Affairs Department inspectors waited in internet chat channels to strike up conversations with would-be photo traders.

Now the software does that job for them.

The monitoring of chat channels has been partly automated, alerting inspectors the moment the channels are accessed from New Zealand.

"There's a [computer] script we wrote that sounds an alarm whenever a New Zealander enters a particular channel," said publications inspector Jon Peacock.

He told a Netsafe conference in Auckland yesterday that more sophisticated detection and tracking methods had been adopted since the department made its first bust in 1995, taking offline a bulletin board hosting objectionable material.

A mass of criminal profiling information had also been gathered, giving investigators a clearer picture of the offenders they were hunting.

They ranged in age from 13 to 70 and were predominantly male, said Mr Peacock. About 20 per cent were under the age of 17.

"They trade the pictures like baseball cards, trying to collect entire sets."

Some offenders amassed up to 200,000 images on their computer hard drives, which were often seized in raids.

Mr Peacock said developing relationships with Interpol and foreign electronic crime units had reaped rewards.

One of the department's biggest successes had been uncovering a Christchurch trader who was traced electronically to a contact in Manchester. That tip led British authorities to detect 53 other offenders scattered throughout the world.

About 420 New Zealanders had been identified as offenders, leading to 90 prosecutions, with 30 more cases pending, Mr Peacock said.

IRC (internet relay chat) is the most lucrative hunting ground.

A hugely popular virtual chatting system that allows people to congregate on certain "channels" to have group or private discussions, it often has up to 100,000 users online at one time, with 40 to 80 shadowy channels dealing with child pornography.

Users require a "client" piece of software that allows them to connect to a network of "servers" which pass messages between channel surfers.

Also speaking at the Netsafe conference, which ends today, was Dr Ilene Berson, from the University of South Florida.

She said that United States research showed that largely unsupervised adolescents were "doing risky things online" such as sending digital photos of themselves to strangers, giving out their phone number online and even meeting online acquaintances.

Citing a New Zealand survey published last week by the Internet Safety Group, she said local children using the internet were more likely to meet strangers face to face than their American counterparts.

The survey found that 23 per cent of 7 to 10-year-olds and 37 per cent of 16 to 19-year-olds had physically met an internet contact.