Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography

The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) is concerned about the link between child pornography and the financial system. In one case, investigators identified 70,000 customers paying $29.95 per month and using their credit cards to access graphic images of small children being sexually assaulted. On 20 July 2005, U.S. Senator Richard Shelby, the former Chairman and current Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, hosted a meeting of representatives from leading banks, credit card companies, payment companies and others. Senator Shelby opened the meeting with this statement:

"If people were purchasing heroin and cocaine and using their credit cards, we would be outraged and would do something about it. This is worse."

After the initial meeting with Senator Shelby, ICMEC and its sister organization, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), held a meeting to create an action plan. From this second meeting, the Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography (FCACP) was formed. Delegates present at the U.S./European Summit on Missing & Exploited Children agreed to the ambitious goal of eradicating commercial child pornography, and the public launch of the Coalition took place on 15 March 2006 on Capitol Hill where it all began.

The FCACP is made up of 34 of the leading banks, credit card companies, electronic payment networks, third party payments companies, and Internet services companies.

FCACP members have been focusing on leveraging their collective expertise and developing best practices to deter the online exploitation of children. In 2007 the FCACP developed and published a best-practices guide for financial institutions, titled "Internet Merchant Acquisition and Monitoring Best Practices for Prevention and Detection of Commercial Child Pornography." And in 2008 the group published a white paper on "Trends in Migration, Hosting and Payment for Commercial Child Pornography Websites."

Ernie Allen, President and CEO of ICMEC, and FCACP Chairman recently commented: "The share of commercial child pornography that is on the Internet is substantially smaller than it was just a few years ago. This Coalition has had an enormous impact on the problem, but we are not ready to declare victory."

The goal of the FCACP's global expansion is to disrupt the economics of the child pornography business by building alliances with companies, law enforcement and NGOs, and crafting solutions that are harmonious with local laws and customs. Significant progress has been made in Europe and Asia Pacific. For example,

• The European Financial Coalition (ERC) was launched on March 3, 2009, as a result of a funding commitment from the European Commission. ICMEC serves as an advisory member of the EFC Steering Group, providing guidance on the structure and strategy of the group based on the experience of the FCACP.

• In Sweden in the summer of 2008, the NGO ECPAT Sweden began collaborating with SkandiaBanken and law enforcement. On February 27, 2009 the Swedish Bankers Association and ECPAT Sweden announced that all Swedish banks would be supporting the effort.

• The Asia Pacific Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography has been formed and is in the early stages of mapping out work streams and priorities. The group will initially take a region-wide approach, with a focus on specific countries to follow. The law firm of Allen & Overy is supporting these efforts with pro bono research on the legislative and legal landscape in several Asia Pacific countries. Additionally, ICMEC will soon open an office in Singapore which will play a key role in building the FCACP in the region.

While these trends are encouraging, the FCACP is attempting to stay ahead of this process and reach out to additional industry sectors to keep the pressure on. Specifically, the FCACP is developing contacts and learning procedures for acting with registrars, hosting companies and similar entities as added avenues to make the child pornography business more difficult to run.