"You Have the Power" Campaign Aimed at Financial and Technological Industries
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia and SINGAPORE, May 9, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Cyberspace is home to more than one million images of children being subjected to sexual abuse and exploitation around the world. In order to defeat the illegal enterprise of child pornography, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) announced today a new digital awareness campaign focused on engaging the financial and technology industries across the Asia-Pacific region, encouraging them to take action to protect their systems from those who seek to sexually abuse and exploit children.
Since ICMEC formed the Asia-Pacific Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography (APAC-FCACP) in 2009, it has become a prominent child protection force in the region, providing a platform for banks, credit card companies, electronic payments networks, online third-party payment systems, Internet companies, technology companies, social networking platforms, industry associations, law enforcement, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to share and maximize their skills, experience and determination to impede the efforts of those who seek to harm children.
The objective of this new campaign is to inform the financial and technology institutions in the Asia-Pacific region about the illicit use of legitimate corporate platforms to facilitate the sale, purchase and dissemination of online child sexual abuse materials. ICMEC believes this campaign will spur action to address this pressing issue and to encourage industry to join the APAC-FCACP.
"By shining a light on this issue, we're educating people on the problems with online payment systems and how they can stop those who are profiting from child exploitation," said Ambassador Maura Harty, President and CEO of ICMEC.
This campaign will officially kick off on Tuesday, May 9th and include a variety of digital media assets, including a compelling video, sharable social media posts with statistics and calls to action, and digital educational resource materials. Campaign messages will be shared by ICMEC and a host of other child protection partners in the Asia-Pacific region.
Why Companies Should Participate
The APAC-FCACP encourages an ongoing dialogue between companies, law enforcement, NGOs, and government agencies to develop practical approaches and solutions.
The benefits to companies include access to: valuable data/trends for monitoring internal systems; recommended tools and vendors that "crawl" the web for potential violations associated with a particular brand; enhanced dialogue with law enforcement; constructive channels of communication with other industries; and solid, real-time intelligence on where the business of child pornography is headed.
As a first step, companies in the financial and technology sectors should ensure that their terms of service clearly state that a customer who trades or sells child pornography, or engages in other types of child sexual exploitation, will be removed from the service and reported to law enforcement whenever possible.
These institutions have the power to help keep children safe. To learn more about ICMEC's campaign and how to defeat these illegal networks, please visit the website: Youhavethepower.icmec.org
About ICMEC
The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children is a private 501(c)(3) non-governmental, nonprofit organization. For more than 16 years, ICMEC has been a leader in identifying gaps in the global community's ability to protect children from abduction, sexual abuse and exploitation, and expertly assembling the people, resources and tools needed to fill those gaps. ICMEC focuses on programs that have an impact on addressing the issues surrounding missing children, child abduction, child sexual abuse and exploitation.
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