Microsoft, European Law Enforcement Agencies and Governments to Increase Effectiveness of Investigations Between Police Forces With Deployment of CETS
Italy, Spain and the UK are joining the list of countries at various stages of implementing the Child Exploitation Tracking System, a software tool that allows police agencies to share and analyse information for tracking child exploitation on the internet.
18 Oct 2006 — London — The origin of the Child Exploitation Tracking System (CETS) dates back to January 2003 when Toronto police officer detective sergeant Paul Gillespie sent an e-mail to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates asking for help in combating the rising tide of online exploitation of children.
Responding to the challenge, Microsoft lent a team of software engineers to work closely with the Toronto Police. Together they created a specialized database and powerful online investigative tool known as CETS.
Microsoft has since worked in collaboration with international law enforcement agencies to further develop CETS, allowing police agencies to communicate in real-time and work together on investigations against those who exploit children on the internet.
This week’s announcements in Italy, Spain and the UK represent an important milestone in terms of deploying CETS in Europe, with all three countries demonstrating their long-term commitment to combating the threat posed to children online. In addition, Microsoft is at various different stages of agreeing deployment with a further five European countries.
“Microsoft is committed to helping make the internet a safer place,” says Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer. “We’re proud to be working with law enforcement agencies in Italy, Spain and the UK, and we are discussing CETS deployment with agencies in other European countries and around the world.”
The rising tide of the online sexual exploitation of children is a major challenge facing law enforcement agencies all over the world. According to data gathered by non-governmental organization Anesvad, there are more than 4,000,000 internet sites containing sexual material on children worldwide and 500 new sites are created each day. It is estimated that more than half these sites, around 2,400,000, are pay for services, generating a worldwide turnover of 960,000,000 euros per month.
CETS, however, has already played a part in several investigations across geographic boundaries, creating links that have helped apprehend online offenders and have led to the rescue of children in countries around the world. It figured prominently in the March 2006 arrest of 27 people in four countries who ran a private chat room with the aim of grooming vulnerable children. Since 2004, Toronto Police officers have used CETS to assist with their investigations, resulting in 64 arrests worldwide and the identification of 43 victims worldwide.
While every police agency has jurisdictional borders, whether municipal, regional or national, internet child exploitation is borderless. With child pornography, police can often see a crime being committed, but are unable to respond. The CETS vision is to link law enforcement officers and computer databases, allowing a police unit in one country to share a common platform with officers in other agencies, independent of the hardware or software used in the course of an investigation.
The collaborative technologies built into CETS mean investigations can be better coordinated and can help a police unit in one country ascertain if a case is already under investigation in another.
Built using Microsoft tools and technologies based on global industry standards, including XML, CETS can be easily integrated with systems other than Microsoft’s.
To date, Microsoft has invested over $7 million (U.S.) in funding, resources and technology to help create CETS and to assist international law enforcement agencies in implementing the system.
This week witnessed the following three major announcements about the deployment of CETS in Europe:
• The Italian Ministry of the Interior formally launched CETS after 12 months’ cooperation between Microsoft Italy and Italian law enforcement agencies.
• In Spain, The Department of the Interior, the Alfonso Martin Escudero Foundation and Microsoft Spain signed an important agreement pledging their combined protection of children’s rights on the Internet, with CETS serving as the backbone for this collaboration.
• In the UK, meanwhile, CETS was formally unveiled accompanied by examples of how the technology has already assisted with several police investigations.
