Policing Child Pornography on the Internet — In the Netherlands

AuthorW.Ph. (Wouter) Stol
DOI10.1177/0032258X0207500105
Published date01 March 2002
Date01 March 2002
Subject MatterArticle
DR W.PH. (WOUTER) STOL1
Netherlands Police Academy, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands
POLICING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
ON THE INTERNET - IN THE
NETHERLANDS
Since crime on the internet does not adhere to national boundaries,
police forces must acquaint themselves with the law enforcement
situation in other countries. This article provides the reader with
information about the Netherlands. Dutch attitudes towards child
pornography will be discussed, as well as Dutch legislation, the
organisational structure of the police, the division of labour between
police units, and problems Dutch police encounter while combating
child pornography on the internet. The Dutch police are confronted
with two major problems. First, police officers know too little about the
digital sides of contemporary police work, including the more techno-
logical facets as well as sociological and criminological characteristics
of virtual communities. Secondly, the police must establish new
formal as well as informal collaborations on both a national and
international level, since internet crime does not fit into existing law-
enforcement structures.
Introduction
Developed countries may have laws that prohibit distribution of
child pornography, but may also contain loopholes, which make
effective law enforcement difficult. For example, the Netherlands
has loopholes in its laws concerning possession of child porno-
graphy. The law does prohibit 'stocking' child pornography. Stock-
ing is defined as 10 or more items on a certain number of pages.
The number of pages depends on the size of the items and the page
(Khan, 2000).
People use the Internet for many good reasons, such as educating
themselves and keeping in touch with friends abroad. Yet there are also
people on the Internet who are engaged in disorderly conduct and
crime, for instance Internet-fraud, hacking and the distribution of child
pornography. As a consequence the police also have to be present in
cyberspace.
Because crime on the Internet is a cross-border phenomenon, police
forces from different countries must collaborate more than they do at
present to govern crime effectively. To achieve this, police forces must
acquaint themselves with the law-enforcement situation in other coun-
tries. In his study Khan (2000), a scientist at University College,
London, makes clear that it is easy to draw the wrong conclusions
about law enforcement elsewhere. Specifically, he sees non-existing
The Police Journal, Volume 75 (2002) 45

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