28
June 2004 Chatmag News.
By
Peter J. Carr, Publisher Chatmag.com
The
recent
proposal outlined by The U.K.'s National Crime Squad (NCS) to monitor
Internet chat rooms is not a workable solution, according to Internet chat
network owners and administrators. In their statement of 9 June,
2004 the NCS stated that "Uniformed Officers" will enter certain chat rooms,
primarily those chat rooms frequented by adults seeking underage children,
and have an icon attached to their nickname to identify themselves as law
enforcement officers. The F.B.I. is also named as one of the agencies
participating in this proposal.
No
details are available as to which chat networks are slated for the police
presence, and requests for information from the NCS have gone unanswered.
It is not known whether they are referring to IRC chat networks, or web
based chat areas, such as Yahoo! Chat or AOL chat rooms.
Chatmag
News requested feedback on this issue from IRC Operators, IRC network administrators,
and Yahoo! Chat users, with over one hundred replies recieved. Virtually
all of the responses raised questions as to how the Officers will identify
themselves; what assurances chat users will be given that the Officer is
authentic; which chat channels or rooms will they occupy and will they
monitor private chat conversations.
One
IRCop was straightforward in his response, that he "will kill (disconnect)
any "Uni" " found on his network. Others espressed cautious optimism
that such a proposal may be workable, but would need more information before
committing to a uniformed police presence on their networks. Several
network operators would welcome a police presence, one operator saying
" I would openly invite police officers to our network and be thankful
there's someone around with some authority to do something about pedophiles
and other internet criminals! I'm definitely for it and I would be
a proud advocator!"
Another
IRC Operator brought up the issue of censorship and the sheer volume of
chat channels available.
"It
sounds like a good idea. However, it could be a first step towards
censoring chatrooms. There are many networks (EFnet, for example)
that pride themselves on absolute freedom for users to do what they want
to. With the exception of damaging the network, of course.
That
aside, I don't see how it could be feasible to police chatrooms.
According to SearchIRC.com, there are nearly 600,000 chatrooms on public
IRC networks alone. It would take a lot of "beat cops" to police
it." (Ed. Note. Operator is not affiliated with EFnet)
A
common concern among network operators, will the uniformed officers confine
themselves to a particular chat channel, or is this the camels nose under
the tent, in which the network users will see a Police Officer in any of
the thousands of unrelated chat channels?
IRC
network operators are particularly concerned that the NCS made this proposal
without the input of those that are familiar with the operation of chat
networks and the NCS unilaterally deciding that Uniformed Officers will
be entering chat networks without prior consent of the network owners.
While
all respondents agree that online predators are an issue that must be addressed,
many stress that care should be taken to preserve the rights of the individual
chat networks to set their own standards within the boundaries of applicable
laws, and the rights of chatters to express themselves in either an open
forum or in private messages.
Without
the cooperation of chat networks and policies that guard the rights of
chat networks and individuals, the proposal by the NCS is a potentially
good idea that may never get off the ground.
Background
Information:
Feedback
from IRCops and Administrators.
CNN.
Cyber-Cops Plan to Patrol Internet Chatrooms.
The
Register (UK) Police to monitor chat rooms.
The
Register (UK) UK police lack e-crime savvy officers
Discuss
this issue in our Discussion
Board or on Grep
Law.
