The filter will be operative during October, and will apply for all of Telenor's Internet customers, both via dial-up-lines and broadband. The filter will be placed centrally at Telenor, and no installation at customers' computers will be required. KRIPOS will provide lists of web sites containing child pornography, and Telenor will handle the technical management of the filter. Should any of Telenor's customers attempt to open a web site containing child pornography, a blocking site will automatically pop up, containing information about the filter, as well as a link to KRIPOS. Several hundred sites containing illegal child pornography are currently registered in KRIPOS' files.
"Child pornography on the Internet is a serious problem, and we want make a contribution to the fight against it," said Berit Kjøll, Director of the Consumer Market at Telenor. "It is important to emphasize that we are not introducing any form of censorship, and we also want to stress that KRIPOS decides which web sites customers should be denied access to. We do, however, want to make a contribution whenever we can, and this combined effort, in which we provide the technology and KRIPOS provides the expertise, may lead to fewer assaults on children," said Berit Kjøll.
Last year, the Norwegian Minister of Justice, Odd Einar Dørum, invited the police to cooperate with industry players to make a joint effort in the fight against child pornography. KRIPOS and Telenor have now responded to the Minister's challenge, and together they have developed this filter, which is likely to be the first of its kind in the world.
"This is crime prevention at its best," said head of KRIPOS Arne Huuse. The filter will stop a considerable number of potential users, users that we must assume to exist in Telenor's customer base, which consists of nearly one million Internet customers. If we are able to work across sectors and find new partners in society, we will greatly improve our crime prevention efforts," he said.
The child pornography filter comes free-of-charge, and Telenor will be happy to share its experience and its technology with other Internet suppliers. If other Internet suppliers in Norway and abroad are willing to enter into this partnership, this could be a serious blow to commercial distributors of child pornography.
"If police authorities and Internet suppliers in other countries follow our example, we could succeed in destroying part of the client base of a cynical, international industry which exposes children to violence and sexual assault with the aim of making money," said Huuse. "KRIPOS will distribute information about the filter through Interpol, Europol and other international forums that we are part of," said Huuse.
Security for Telenor's Internet customers
"For several years Telenor has cooperated with Save the Children to promote safe use of the Internet for children, and we have developed a very efficient programme, KidSurf, to help parents control their children's Internet use," said Berit Kjøll. "We have also addressed issues relating to so-called modem kidnapping and spam. We are now taking further steps through our partnership with KRIPOS in the struggle against child pornography, as a natural strengthening of our efforts to make the Internet safer and prevent the abuse of children," said Kjøll.
For more information, please contact:
Esben Tuman Johnsen, head of information at Telenor Norge, tel: +47 905 08 400
Jan Tore Knutsen, head of information at KRIPOS, tel: +47 916 83 864
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