Due to a mistake in the legal process, after this year the police will loose the right to track and observe paedophiles anonymously.

http://www.20min.ch/news/zuerich/sto...wird--10836192

At present the police work under cantonal laws, and it seems these will all change on 1. January 2011, and due to the complicated democratic Swiss legal processes it will take longer to get the fresh laws in place, than it will to take for old laws to expire.

The Zurich police report that next year they will only be able to act after a crime has been committed, which the police see as not acceptable.

There was recently a shocking report on Swiss TV news about Internet activity, and that the paedophiles need to photograph and publish images of child sex (Presumably for cash as well as for their own "fun") and so are very active in trying to meet up with the children in teenie chat rooms.

Parents should now be very thorough in monitoring their childrens' Interent usage.

There's two sides to the law, theoretical and practical, lets see how it pans out, but my guess as policemen also have children it shouldn't make too much difference before the new theory is in place...

I do agree though that it is disturbing and as pointed out, Swiss law is very complicated !

This thread title sounds like a really bad 70s sci-fi movie.

Or a C4 documentary.

I think that parents should ALWAYS have been very thorough in monitoring the activities of their children while connected to the internet.

There is no reason for the computer a child uses to be tucked away in a private space. A child who is on the computer in a shared area of the home is far less likely to get up to things which are either them causing trouble or could cause trouble for them.

Yes, I understand the luxury of internet usage for school purposes but unless there is some reason for the child to actually be connected for school work, they can research what they need and print it off then go wherever it is where they can work best.


So, while this may seem "beside the point" and "off topic" to the thread, I don't think so. Keep the child away from temptation of chat rooms or porn sites and you'll keep them safer (not totally safe of course, most homes didn't even have computers when I had my experience) than if the computer is kept someplace where they have "too much" privacy.

Er, no. Beg to differentiate: The federal government decided that it should be a cantonal issue weather or not the police has the right to pre-emptively track suspects online - not just paedos, but any criminal suspect BEFORE they ever did something.

Some cantons afterwards discussed the topic and adapted their laws and the fat cats in Zurich apparently forgot it - so the police cannot carry on to fish for suspects in children chat rooms.

I have seen the SF program and I found it shocking that kids aparently get sexually very explicit offers within minutes online - nevertheless is the question weather or not and especially how far the police is allowed to spy on SUSPECTS a serious one. I want them to have all tools to catch those assholes, but on the other hand do I not really need a big brother watching me when I surf online... so it is a complex topic and it is a real shame that the Kantonal officials missed the time to discuss it with the necessary depth - they will now make a quick fix I assume and this will either not go far enough or too far... we will see.

Most child abuse happens at the hands of relatives. Parents should be good parents and technology has nothing to do with it.

.. and there is no more now than there has ever been. It is just handled differently in the media.

I 50% agree with this, but I think there's still some danger online and parents should keep an eye on children's Internet usage. I would have thought it's definitely worth taking a look at the browser history occasionally.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Well I don't think there is more than before either, but the media and the police have been doing a better job lately of finding these freaks.

Now I read that the Swiss police are prevented in actually actively looking for these people, they have to wait until a crime is commited.

To me that is a move backwards into 20th century thinking. We have the Internet tools to break into the networks. Tourists are now encouraged to report suspicious activities abroad. So why the hell can't Swiss police watch out? Because it's against a suspect's human rights! Don't our children deserve some protection against a pschychological life changing paedophile's amusement?

(Signed)
Disgusted of Ittigen

That was a good public service announcement. Thank you.

You're a little feisty this morning if it doesn't apply, ignore it....

I thought it was a great reminder to those who have children that the Internet is not regulated.

My apologies....I thought it was sarcastic but I was wrong

There are stringent privacy laws in Switzerland. Even Kantonal law enforcers are not allowed to share their information with other Kantons without certain criteria, particularly that a crime has been committed. The article highlights how this works against preventative law enforcement.