G8 vow to step up fight against child porn

MUNICH, Germany, May 24 (Reuters) World powers vowed today to redouble efforts to combat the sexual exploitation of children by Internet pornographers at a G8 meeting of interior and justice ministers on Web crime.

After their first working session in the Bavarian capital Munich, ministers from current G8 president Germany along with the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia promised to step up efforts to stamp out child porn.

''We categorically denounce those who sexually exploit children by producing images of their sexual abuse and by distributing or collecting such images,'' the declaration said.

The G8 has been working with Interpol for years to combat child pornography and helped it establish the International Child Sexual Exploitation Image Database, which is intended to help police identify and rescue victims of such abuse.

But the declaration made it clear that government authorities alone cannot solve the problem and that the private sector will have to get involved as well. It did not say how they could help.

''Private sector entities including Internet Service Providers, information technology professionals and financial institutions ...

the media, parents and educators, should be encounced to consider what role they could play in the fight,'' it said.

Germany recently smashed a child pornography ring thanks to an unprecedented examination of credit card data provided by financial institutions and credit card companies.

German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said child pornography was ''easy money'' for criminals who sell illegal images to interested customers in cyber space.

Speaking about the German case, she said customers paid some 77 euros per person, meaning the organisers quickly amassed more than 30,000 euros.

''It's possible to make a lot of money in a very short period of time,'' she told reporters.

German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said ministers would discuss terrorism in the afternoon session of the G8 meeting, which ends tomorrow.

He said the fight against Islamist militancy was a top priority.

''A special task will be to identify and curb, wherever possible, the terrorist use of the Internet,'' he said, adding that two young men who attempted to bomb train stations in Germany last year had made their devices with information they found on the Internet.

Reuters AK GC1839