New system to snatch Dominican Republic’s 21,000+ child porn peddlers

Santo Domingo.- At least 21,000 people in the DominicanRepublic exchanged child pornography in the last 12 months, according the UN Children’sFund (UNICEF).

The data were obtained through a quick test of the new systemto be implemented in the country with financial and technical support from theBritish Embassy in the Dominican Republic and UNICEF, and executed by the SpecializedOffice of the Prosecutor for High Technology Crimes (PEDATEC).

PEDATECH representative Sayo Aoki said national statisticsshow that children and adolescents ages 12 to 19 are the majority of Internetusers in Dominican Republic and that access to and use of these without propersupervision poses a great risks for their age group.

During the "Techniques to combat child pornographyonline," Nicholas Fowler, United Kingdom National Criminal Investigation Directorateliaison officer in Santo Domingo, revealed that these 21,000 people consciouslyenter the world of child pornography.

The specialist said most people involved with online childpornography end up looking for sex with children. He said one shouldn’t believethat those involved are only foreigners visiting the country to upload, downloador exchange pictures of the raping of children.

"That’s why it’s so important to address the problemnow, not only to bring to justice in the Dominican Republic to people who aresharing images of children abused in other countries and other nationalities,but to protect the country’s children," Fowler said.

In that regard, UK ambassador Chris Campbell called the newsystem an important and powerful tool to find people who are committing thattype of crime.

PEDATEC director John Henry Reynoso stressed the new system’simportance in helping to find all those people online and thanked the BritishEmbassy and UNICEF for their support.

Through the specialized course, international experts will bolsterthe knowledge of 24 officials from law enforcement, investigation and crime prosecutionin the Dominican Republic, on how to implement and manage the Children ProtectionSystem.