Internet Child Abuse: Current Research, Policy and Practice

Internet Child Abuse: Current Research and Policy provides a timely overview of international policy, legislation and offender management and treatment practice in the area of Internet child abuse. Internet use has grown considerably over the last five years, and information technology now forms a core part of the formal education system in many countries. There is however, increasing evidence that the Internet is used by some adults to access children and young people in order to ‘groom’ them for the purposes of sexual abuse; as well as to produce and distribute indecent illegal images of children. This book presents and assesses the most recent and current research on internet child abuse, addressing: its nature, the behaviour and treatment of its perpetrators, international policy, legislation and protection, and policing. It will be required reading for an international audience of academics, researchers, policy-makers and criminal justice practitioners with interests in this area.

Characteristics of the Internet for Criminal Child Sexual Abuse by Online Groomers

This paper presents a number of characteristics of the Internet that makes it attractive to online groomers. Relevant Internet characteristics include disconnected personal communication, mediating technology, universality, network externalities, distribution channel, time moderator, low‐cost standard, electronic double, electronic double manipulation, information asymmetry, infinite virtual capacity, independence in time and space, cyberspace, and dynamic social network. Potential sex offenders join virtual communities, where they meet other persons who have the same interest. A virtual community provides an online meeting place where people with similar interests can communicate and find useful information. Communication between members may be via email, bulletin boards, online chat, web‐based conferencing or other computer‐based media.

The internet of services and USDL

A prominent research focus, especially in the context of EU public funding, has been the systematic use of the Internet for new ways of value creation in the services sector. This idea of service networks in the Internet, frequently dubbed the Internet of Services or Web service ecosystems, wants to make services tradable in digital media. In order to enable communication and trade between providers and consumers of services, the Internet of Services requires a standard that creates a "commercial envelope" around a service. This is where the Unified Service Description Language (USDL) comes into play as a normative and balanced unification of service information. The unified description established by USDL is machine-processable, considers technical and business aspects of a service as well as functional and non-functional attributes.

Civil and Criminal Liability of Players

The liability of players in their particular sporting fields has increasingly become prevalent in the minds of government, sport administrators, the medical and legal professions and the parents and players themselves. This awareness has arisen for numerous reasons. Due to the enormous volume of sport to which the community is being exposed through the varied levels of the media together with our aspirations towards a healthier lifestyle and longevity, participation in sports has increased. Accordingly, sports injury litigation has increased. A number of other factors may be advanced to explain the increase. Sport has become big business all over the world. A talent for sport may bring the lucky player fame and fortune. It is not surprising therefore, where such ambitions are frustrated by deliberately or carelessly inflicted injury to the player, thought will be given to seeking compensation for that injury in the courts of law. Other factors are that litigation is on the increase as a means of dispute resolution and lawyers see sporting organisations better able to afford compensation to their players because they are more likely to carry insurance.

Guilt in victims of internet scams

This is a presentation made (by invitation from the Queensland Police, Fraud Squad) to a group of Queenslanders all of whom had fallen victim to internet scams. The paper addresses the subject of guilt and why we may 'suffer' from it after a traumatic experience where the individual and/or the family have gone through a major financial or emotional loss.

Director liability for uncommercial transactions : is s 588G(1A) impotent to provide liquidators the means to seek compensation for creditors?

In the 10 years since the addition of uncommercial transactions to the table of deemed “debts incurred” in s 588G(1A) of the Corporations Act, the sub-section has arguably achieved little. This article explains why this has been so, and what needs to be done to enable this aspect of Australia’s insolvent trading laws to operate effectively and as originally intended.

Will Queensland tort reform change valuation practice and valuers liability

It has been common practice over past property boom and bust cycles in Australia for financial institutions and property owners who have suffered a loss in the property downturn to sue valuers for negligence. Damages claimed are based on the price differential between the valuation at or nearing the peak of the market and the subsequent sale in the market downturn. However, the context of valuers liability has become increasingly complex as a result of statutory reforms introduced in response to the Review of the Law of Negligence Final Report 2002), in particular the introduction of Civil Liability Acts introducing proportionate liability provisions. Legislative reforms have had some positive outcomes for Valuers, however valuers need to continue to maintain high ethical standards, independence and professionalism in valuation practice.

A pragmatic approach to intellectual property and development : a case study of the Jordanian copyright law in the internet age

On October 4, 2004, Brazil and Argentina requested that WIPO adopt a development-oriented approach to IP and to reconsider its work in relation to developing countries. In October, 2007, WIPO member States adopted a historic decision for the benefit of developing countries, to establish a WIPO Development Agenda. Although there have been several studies related to IP and development that call for IP laws in developing countries to be development-friendly, there is little research that attempts to provide developing countries with practical measures to achieve that goal. This article takes the copyright law in Jordan as a case study and shows how, in practical terms, a pro-development-oriented approach could be implemented in the copyright laws of developing countries. It provides specific recommendations for developing countries to ensure that their IP laws are aligned with and serve their social and economic development objectives.