Oz cops use teens as Net crime fighters
p2pnet news view | Crime:- Twenty teenaged deputies, some of them as young as 14, are being used in Australia to catch cyber fraudsters, predators, “and even those grooming youths for acts of terrorism,” says The Daily Telegraph.
The teens, all from Canberra, were brought to the UK as, “part of a global strategy to use their knowledge to develop a charter for the UN”.
They’ve been recruited by the Australian Federal Police to help fight online crime in, “recognition they are more net savvy than veteran agents,” says the story, going on:
However, Australia isn’t alone. The Online Teen Net Police are, “part of a worldwide program, with children in the US, Canada, UK and 23 other countries being recruited and deputised to help fight e-crime,” says the story.
“It’s almost programmed into their DNA how to use technology and how to navigate around the ocean that is the internet,” AFP high tech crime centre head Kevin Zuccato told The Telegraph.
“For us 30-, 40-, 50-year-old police officers, policy makers and government officials, it’s impossible – in my view – to develop appropriate effective strategies unless we listen to the people we’re trying to protect.”
Zuccato said teens gave advice about chat room chatter, jargon and code used in mobile phone SMS, says the story, adding:
“(The teens) can help us dissuade criminals, educate children to stay safe online, empower themselves to make the right decisions online and if we can provide policies with their information that means we minimise the number of victims,” he said.
In Stuart Clarke’s The Telegraph pic on the right are Zuccato with Ella, Alister, Damian and Jessica.
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The Daily Telegraph -Australian Federal Police hire teens to spot online crime, July 18, 2008
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July 23rd, 2008 at 11:32 am
“grooming youths for acts of terrorism”
They forgot to mention pedophilia, witchcraft, …
They never miss a chance to spit out things like terrorism, as if there were an epidemic taking place of children being recruited by foreign terrorists to commit mass murder. Although they’d be hard-pressed to name a single incident of this ever happening, that matters not the least. Scare tactics work, and the more outrageous, the better.
Anyone can pass for a 14-year-old online, so why the need to use real 14 y.o.’s? Perhaps it’s not really about catching online offenders, it’s all about indoctrinating the very people who are likely committing online offenses, namely copyright infringement, to begin with.
It’s supposedly because of these teenage ‘criminals’ preference for downloading music instead of buying plastic disks that the music recording industry has lost billions of dollars since 1999. Lawsuits against kids have definitely not been effective, and may have been counter-productive, as evidenced by the RIAA abandoning mass-lawsuits against non-university addresses. People are starting to see law enforcement as being the media industry’s goons-for-hire.
Therefore a new tactic is called for: Have the kids work for the copyright cops so they won’t be working against them. But don’t mention anything up-front about copyright infringement. That will come later, and gradually like the frog-in-the-cooking-pot temperature. For now, these kids will be working to save humanity from the vilest evils the world has ever known. Just like the German kids recruited for Hitler Youth in the 1930s were told to believe.
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:57 am
I can see where “Hitler” is going…but at the same time, it seems like more of an outsourcing issue. They need people who are tech savvy and have connections online. The obvious choices are 14-20ish year olds. It seems like the younger someone is, they generally have a great deal more native skill with technology. I wouldn’t worry too much yet about a new “Hitler Youth”, it sounds like the Aussies just want some cheap and effective help.
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:02 pm
^^^ It is. Children soldiers, new Hitler Youth. Good addition to Lucky and Flo.
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:06 pm
I think AFP agent Kevin Zuccato might be a homosexual pedophile. Why is he in a lover-like embrace with that boy in the picture? By the expression on his face, he looks like he was caught in the act of doing something naughty with that kid. (It’s a little strange that not a single person is smiling in that picture, why are they all so glum?) If the Catholic Church scandal has taught us anything, it’s that people in official positions of authority should never be trusted to be left alone with children, as it turned out that the priests’ loving affection for children (mostly boys) was anything but platonic.
July 23rd, 2008 at 5:10 pm
The impression I got from the article was “Us adults are too dumb to understand all this new-fangled technology, so we need kids to show us how to use it.”
July 24th, 2008 at 4:10 am
I think some are missing the point. These kids weren’t hired to find copyright infringers. It was for their internet savvy, and good luck to them. A worthwhile cause which hopefully they’ll be paid for also. I like the non-prudish friendly pose, as all too often it’s hands off inhumanity. They are obviously on good terms and comfortable with it. He’s not a priest where pedophilia is the rule not the exception.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:50 am
^^^ I am pretty sure this is open to abuse, as kids may be brainwashed into accepting file sharing as major crime.
July 24th, 2008 at 11:59 am
The Australian Federal Police has been very active in ruthlessly going after participants in the file sharing scene. In a complete travesty of justice, they extradited Hugh Griffiths to the US to stand trial, a country where he has never even set foot, because the US has much tougher anti-filesharing laws than Australia.
Considering their background, why would anyone believe that none of this will ever spill over to the children they’ve recruited?
July 25th, 2008 at 2:08 am
Re last 2 comments [after mine] You may well be right, it could transcend into file sharing, though I fail to see why they’d need extra recruits for that, and I don’t know that it’s the highest thing on their agenda. I’ve never heard of the AFP going after file sharers, though I wouldn’t be too surprised if true. To get international agreement on this though? I doubt that any of those kids would be brainwashed into that, even for money.
July 25th, 2008 at 2:16 am
Don’t know the story of Hugh Griffiths but that’s absurd. Perhaps we should all be extradited since everybody shares files, even the police, the AFP, the govt, industry, politicians, musicians, the public.