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<strong>Child</strong> PornograPhy First report oF the Dutch NatioNal rapporteur
Since the blocking of child abuse material in the Netherlands was not implemented, the Internet Safety
Platform no longer has an active working group that promotes public-private partnerships in the field
of child pornography. It follows from §3.8.3 that this does not mean that the parties cited above – the
government, intermediate-level social organisations and the private sector – are not currently developing
any PPS initiatives or are not able to do so.
Challenges faced by public-private sector partnerships
Public-private sector partnerships provide opportunities to tackle child pornography, but also face challenges
that prompt a clearer distribution of responsibilities, tasks and competences. The relevance of
recognising and acknowledging the interests of the involved parties in order to arrive at effective publicprivate
sector partnerships comes to the fore above. 784 In the case of child pornography, this involves
vulnerable victims, calculating offenders and material that constitutes a criminal offence. This means
that public-private sector partnerships are only possible after carefully assessing all relevant interests,
whereby the interest of the victim must be paramount. The appointment of community and security
managers at various Internet companies and collaborations with the police in the event of abuse illustrate
that this is actually taking place in practice. Each time, a new assessment must be made as to
which tasks that strictly lie within the governmental domain would be suitable for a shared responsibility
within public-private sector partnerships, or for transferring responsibility to private partners. Police
surveillance on Habbo (see box §3.8.3.1 and the Internet Safety Platform are examples of instances where
the government is actively investing in its own digital knowledge and resources. Such investment also
applies to the safeguarding of the fundamental rights of Internet users. Not only civil rights organisations
and the academic world have referred to this point, 785 but this is also an explicit request of the government
itself with regard to the combating of Internet-related offences. 786 Wherever the governmental
tasks are left to self-regulating capacity of the private sector, the role of the government as the party that
bears ultimate responsibility must exert a guiding influence. 787
3.8.3 Concrete (actions of) public-private sector partnerships
In this sub-section, various interventions undertaken by public-private sector partnerships, which involve
the prevention and/or combating of digital child abuse material, will be discussed. However, as
shown in the ‘<strong>National</strong> Cyber Security Strategy’ box below, it emerges that public-private sector partnerships
also exist in other fields that are relevant to the issue of tackling child pornography.
<strong>National</strong> Cyber Security Strategy
In February 2011, the impetus was given to form a <strong>National</strong> Cyber Security Strategy (NCSS), one
of the main points of which was that “child pornography must be tackled by public and private
784 Pel et al., 2002; Knibbe, 2002.
785 Various researchers and interest groups believe that the opportunity for legal control must exist in the
application of the statutory NTD regulation, see: www.bof.nl/live/wp-content/ uploads/brandbrief.pdf
(viewed 16 June 2011).
786 See ‘Kamer: eerst privacyonderzoek, dan wetgeving’ [Court: first privacy investigation, then legislation], Webwereld,
2 June 2011, webwereld.nl/nieuws/106864/kamer--eerst-privacyonderzoek--dan-wetgeving.html
(viewed 29 Augustus 2011); www.tweedekamer.nl/ao_repo/vj/20110601_<strong>National</strong>e%20Veiligheid.pdf
(viewed 16 June 2011).
787 See also European Digital Rights, 2011.