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| About the hotline center |
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| Introduction |
May 31, 2006
Internet Association Japan
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Operational Launch of the Internet Hotline Center
- An integrated point for reporting illegal or harmful
information to enable safe use of the Internet -
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| 1. Background to Establishing the Internet Hotline Center |
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In recent years, the circulation of illegal information on the Internet such as child pornography and advertisements for illegal drugs, and information that is dangerous to public safety and order (harmful information), including information on how to make explosives, contract killings and other illegal activities, has become a problem of our society. To tackle such illegal and harmful information, the police have set up cyber patrols and are cracking down on those who post illegal information. Also, measures are being carried out by providers and e-bulletin board administrators to prevent the sending of illegal or harmful information, and filtering of information is performed by the receivers of information.
However, an enormous amount of new information is circulated daily on the Internet, and in addition, there is also data that is stored on servers installed abroad. To address this, an institution is required that will receive all reports of illegal or harmful information discovered by Internet users, will investigate and evaluate the contents, and based on those results, will request appropriate measures to be carried out in order to deal more effectively with illegal and harmful information.
On the other hand, it may be surmised that from the standpoint of users of the Internet, whose co-operation is required, needing to give their name to the police when reporting illegal information may make the users reluctant to report information. Although there are relevant bodies that deal with harmful information, there are issues such as the difficulty in selecting the appropriate institution.
Under such circumstances, a recommendation was formulated at the National Police Agency General Security Measures Conference in the 2005 fiscal year that in order to effectively and efficiently advance the handling of illegal and harmful information on the Internet, it is necessary to introduce a mechanism (a "Hotline") that will receive information regarding illegal or harmful information from a wide range of Internet users, and after sorting the information according to a set criteria, inform the police and submit requests to administrators of e-bulletin boards to take measures against posting of such information.
In response to the recommendation, Internet Association Japan obtained support from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication and the National Police Agency and, in April this year, formed the Preparation Committee for the Establishment of the Hotline Center, consisting of industry experts and people of related industry groups in order to carry out the necessary preparation work to introduce Hotline. The committee put together the Hotline Operation Draft Guidelines that stipulates the range of illegal and harmful information, and its evaluation criteria and procedures. From April to May the committee collected opinions from the public.
The Preparation Committee has since corrected parts of the Draft Guidelines based on the opinions collected and has finalized it.
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| 2. The Role of the Internet Hotline Center |
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| With the information received from Internet users, the Hotline will generally carry out the following: |
| (1)Inform the Police |
| Information which Hotline judges to be possibly in violation of criminal laws when circulated on the Internet, information related to specific crimes (for example, information regarding sales of prohibited goods) and information relating to other crimes as well as information regarding suicide will be reported to the police for the purpose of criminal investigation, crime prevention and life protection. |
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| (2)Submit handling requests to administrators of e-bulletin boards and providers |
Submit handling requests to administrators of e-bulletin boards and providers.
For a certain range of illegal and harmful information, the Hotline will request providers and e-bulletin board administrators, measures to block posting of such information. |
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| (3)Inform Related Institutions |
| For information regarding violation of human rights or intellectual property rights that may be suitably dealt with by other groups and institutions, the Hotline will inform those relevant institutions and groups that are carrying out specialist responses. For example, information concerning defamation and infringement of privacy will be reported to the Human Rights Organs of the Ministry of Justice, and information regarding infringement of intellectual property rights will be reported to the respective authorities. |
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| (4)Handle Illegal Information through International Co-operation |
Until now, when illegal information on the Internet was stored on a server abroad, the police would request its removal through the ICPO (International Criminal Police Organization) to police organization in the country. At the operational launch of Hotline, illegal information will still be dealt with as before in principle. However, to supplement this, for member countries of INHOPE (Internet Hotline Providers in Europe Association) the Hotline will request the removal through INHOPE.
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| 3. The Operation of the Internet Hotline Center |
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Reports from Internet users will be received at the Hotline's web site (http://www.internethotline.jp/index-en.html). The site can be accessed not only from PCs but also from mobile phones connected to the Internet. For the content of reports, after analysts have investigated the source of the posting, a legal advisory consisting of several lawyers will judge whether the information is illegal or harmful. If according to those results the information is found illegal, the Hotline will report it to the police and will request measures to the provider or administrator of the e-bulletin board to block the posting. If the information is harmful, the Hotline will request the provider or e-bulletin board administrator to perform actions based on their contract.
Regarding the state of the response by the Internet Hotline Center to the information reported, the Hotline is planning to devise a method to enable the reporting person to view the status even if the user is anonymous, by entering a reference number that will appear on the web page at the time of reporting.
Furthermore, in order to prove the authenticity of the Hotline as the sender of the reporting email, emails informing the police, or emails requesting countermeasures to providers and administrators of e-bulletin boards will be sent with a digital signature including a public key and its certificate attached.
To enable safe use of the Internet, we hope for the support and co-operation of providers and e-bulletin board administrators as well as the many Internet users in Japan.
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