PayPal joins VGT to combat online child sexual abuse

The Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT) welcomes PayPal, the fifth industry partner to join the VGT alliance, to provide an even stronger presence world wide in the ongoing fight against online child abuse.

Chair of the VGT and Australian Federal Police (AFP) Assistant Commissioner Neil Gaughan, said that combating online child sexual exploitation can not be done by law enforcement alone.

“Law enforcement agencies can not work in a silo. Partnerships need to be formed with industry, academia and the NGO community. I am proud to say that the VGT now does this.

“We need to work on solutions outside of police action to stop the hideous crime and prevent or at least minimise the distribution of child exploitation material across the internet.

“By joining the VGT as an industry partner, PayPal demonstrate their commitment to helping reduce the threat to children online and will continue to provide support to international law enforcement,” Assistant Commissioner Gaughan said.

Andrew Rechtman, Director of Strategy, PayPal Australia, said “As a global enabler of online commerce, PayPal takes its role as a leader in online payments seriously. We are dedicated to providing a safe and secure payments infrastructure to our millions of customers and merchant partners across the world whilst actively working with global law enforcement agencies to combat illegal activity.”

PayPal is committed to combating the sexual exploitation of children and supports the VGT’s mission which is to build a global capacity to deter, prevent and respond to this crime against children anywhere and anytime.

As a payment processor, PayPal employs multiple sophisticated models to detect and remove accounts that are involved in the distribution of child sexual exploitation material. PayPal is also a member of the Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography and the Asia Pacific Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography.

The company has policies and procedures in place to combat online child exploitation and has a long standing history of active cooperation with international law enforcement whenever illegal activity is detected or suspected.

A key outcome from the 2010 VGT Conference was to build stronger alliances and expand the VGT membership with organisations outside law enforcement. In pursuit of this outcome, the VGT has now developed strategic partnerships with the End Child Prostitution Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes network (ECPAT International), International Association of Internet Hotlines (INHOPE) and the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC) and the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).