Fighting child pornography through UK encryption law : a powerful weapon in the law's armoury?

Chatterjee, Bela (2012) Fighting child pornography through UK encryption law : a powerful weapon in the law's armoury? Child and Family Law Quarterly, 4. pp. 410-427. ISSN 1358-8184

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Abstract

Encryption works by scrambling digital images and documents, rendering them unintelligible without a key to return them to a comprehensible form. As modern encryption programmes have traditionally proved difficult to break without the key, there has been growing concern that by using encryption to hide their files, criminals will be able to evade investigations. Although the possibility of criminals in general hiding behind encryption is problematic, the risk is understood to be particularly acute in the context of sex offenders. Should such offenders use encryption and withhold the key, their trading and communication networks could be irrevocably hidden from view, as could millions of indecent images. A generic encryption offence was created by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 whereby the failure to surrender encryption keys upon demand would be subject to penalty, but recently – and of particular note – amendments by the Policing and Crime Act 2009 to the offence provide for escalated sentences where the circumstances of the investigation relate to child indecency. In light of these amendments, this article interrogates the necessity and validity of the revised RIPA powers as part of the child protection framework, and considers some alternatives to compelling the disclosure of keys.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Child and Family Law Quarterly
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/core/keywords/law
Subjects:
?? child pornographyencryptionlawregulation of investigatory powers act 2000policing and crime act 2009lawk law (general) ??
ID Code:
57766
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
21 Aug 2012 13:43
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Jul 2024 12:55