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<strong>Child</strong> PornograPhy First report oF the Dutch NatioNal rapporteur
that are part of the forces at play, “a natural tension [exists] between the normative and operational approach
to tackling child pornography on the Internet.” 771 This tension seems to be able to be explained
by the fact that the public-private partnership concerns aspects of Internet governance. Although there
is consensus between the forces at play that sexual violence against children needs to be tackled, there
does not seem to be any agreement as to how this common objective should be achieved. It is clear that
all relevant parties assume a role and need one another in order to arrive at an effective programme of
measures. Andersson Elffers Felix writes, “The public-private sector partnership model is also aimed at
combining the normative and operational interests with one another and thereby optimising the opportunities
for collaboration.” 772
The partnership model proposed by the consultancy firm that would enable these parties to come together
became the ‘Working Group on Blocking <strong>Child</strong> <strong>Pornography</strong>’ of the Internet Safety Platform,
administered by ECP-EPN. 773 In this working group, only those parties that were able to play a possible
role in the blocking of child abuse material came together, such as the police, Internet Service Providers
(ISPs) and the Hotline Combating <strong>Child</strong> <strong>Pornography</strong> on the Internet. Scientists, politicians and digital
civil rights movements that were not represented in the Platform were very critical about the blocking of
websites featuring child pornography. 774 In the end, it did appear that there was no longer any reason to
block websites. The number of websites to be blocked had decreased by such an amount that there were
no longer any sites – or hardly any sites – to be blocked. 775 In fact, the public-private partnership can be
hailed as a success in this case: despite the ‘natural tension’, the involved parties actively contributed,
resulting in the joint conclusion that there were insufficient grounds to enforce the blocking of websites
featuring child abuse material.
771 “The operational approach is based on combating child pornography efficiently and effectively in accordance with the
(statutory) standard that has been set. The police assume an operational role in the combating of child pornography on
the Internet, as do private partners such as ISPs. The operational approach is under pressure from the normative approach
to change and to meet the normative approach to a greater degree. This pressure has resulted in new developments, such
as a national project for the combating of child pornography launched by the police, for example, and an intensification
of the Public Prosecution Service’s efforts in handling child pornography files. In this way, the police and private partners
carry out their work in a social context, that they partly influence themselves. The tension between the normative and the
operational approach therefore results from the fact that these two domains are not completely separated. The responsibility
for combating child pornography on the Internet floats around between the different forces at play. […] The way in
which the forces are distributed means that there will always be multiple parties that require one another in order to arrive
at an effective programme of measures. The new partnership model therefore also aims to combine the normative and
operational interest, thereby optimising the opportunities for collaboration,” Andersson Elffers Felix, 2009, pp.14-15.
772 Andersson Elffers Felix, 2009, pp.14-15.
773 www.ecp-epn.nl/werkgroep-blokkeren-kinderporno (viewed 1 June 2011).
774 See for example Callanan et al., 2009; ‘Europees akkoord: beelden kindermisbruik niet blokkeren maar verwijderen’,
[European agreement: do not block images of child abuse, but remove them] GroenLinks, 28 June 2011,
www.europa.groenlinks.nl/Europees+akkoord%3A+beelden+k indermisbruik+niet+blokkeren+maa
r+verwijderen (viewed 10 August 2011); ‘Alternatieve aanpak bestrijding afbeeldingen seksueel kindermisbruik’,
[Alternative approach to combat images of the sexual abuse of children], Bits of Freedom, 12 April 2011,
www.bof.nl/ live/wp-content/uploads/briefinternetfilter120411-def.pdf (viewed 10 August 2011).
775 Voortgang blokkeren kinderporno [Progress in blocking child pornography] Parliamentary Papers II, 2010/11, 32
500 VI, no.86.