Bart Schermer – författare

Vast amounts of data are nowadays collected, stored and processed, in an effort to assist in  making a variety of administrative and governmental decisions. These innovative steps considerably improve the speed, effectiveness and quality of decisions. Analyses are increasingly performed by data mining and profiling technologies that statistically and automatically determine patterns and trends. However, when such practices lead to unwanted or unjustified selections, they may result in unacceptable forms of  discrimination.Processing vast amounts of data may lead to situations in which data controllers know many of the characteristics, behaviors and whereabouts of people. In some cases, analysts might know more about individuals than these individuals know about themselves. Judging people by their digital identities sheds a different light on our views of privacy and data protection. This book discusses discrimination and privacy issues related to data mining and profiling practices. It provides technological and regulatory solutions, to problems which arise in these innovative contexts. The book explains that common measures for mitigating privacy and discrimination, such as access controls and anonymity, fail to properly resolve privacy and discrimination concerns. Therefore, new solutions, focusing on technology design, transparency and accountability are called for and set forth.

Vast amounts of data are nowadays collected, stored and processed, in an effort to assist in  making a variety of administrative and governmental decisions. These innovative steps considerably improve the speed, effectiveness and quality of decisions. Analyses are increasingly performed by data mining and profiling technologies that statistically and automatically determine patterns and trends. However, when such practices lead to unwanted or unjustified selections, they may result in unacceptable forms of  discrimination.Processing vast amounts of data may lead to situations in which data controllers know many of the characteristics, behaviors and whereabouts of people. In some cases, analysts might know more about individuals than these individuals know about themselves. Judging people by their digital identities sheds a different light on our views of privacy and data protection. This book discusses discrimination and privacy issues related to data mining and profiling practices. It provides technological and regulatory solutions, to problems which arise in these innovative contexts. The book explains that common measures for mitigating privacy and discrimination, such as access controls and anonymity, fail to properly resolve privacy and discrimination concerns. Therefore, new solutions, focusing on technology design, transparency and accountability are called for and set forth.

Ensuring online safety has become a topic on the regulatory agenda in many Western societies. However, regulating for online safety is far from easy, due to the wide variety of national and international, private and public actors and stakeholders that are involved. When regulating online risks for children it is important to strike the right balance between protection against harms on the one hand and safeguarding their fundamental freedoms and rights on the other. The authors in this book attempt to grapple with precisely this theme: striking the right balance between ensuring safety for children on the internet while at the same time enabling them to experiment, to learn, to enrich their lives, to acquire skills and to have fun using this global network. The authors come from various scientific disciplines, ranging from law to social science and from media studies to philosophy. This means that the book provides the reader with both empirical and theoretical/conceptual chapters and sheds a multi-disciplinary light on the complex topic of regulating online safety for children.

Ensuring online safety has become a topic on the regulatory agenda in many Western societies. However, regulating for online safety is far from easy, due to the wide variety of national and international, private and public actors and stakeholders that are involved. When regulating online risks for children it is important to strike the right balance between protection against harms on the one hand and safeguarding their fundamental freedoms and rights on the other. The authors in this book attempt to grapple with precisely this theme: striking the right balance between ensuring safety for children on the internet while at the same time enabling them to experiment, to learn, to enrich their lives, to acquire skills and to have fun using this global network. The authors come from various scientific disciplines, ranging from law to social science and from media studies to philosophy. This means that the book provides the reader with both empirical and theoretical/conceptual chapters and sheds a multi-disciplinary light on the complex topic of regulating online safety for children.

This book centres on Webcam Child Sex Tourism and the Sweetie Project initiated by the children’s rights organization Terre des Hommes in 2013 in response to the exponential increase of online child abuse. Webcam child sex tourism is a growing international problem, which not only encourages the abuse and sexual exploitation of children and provides easy access to child-abuse images, but which is also a crime involving a relatively low risk for offenders as live-streamed webcam performances leave few traces that law enforcement can use. Moreover, webcam child sex tourism often has a cross-border character, which leads to jurisdictional conflicts and makes it even harder to obtain evidence, launch investigations or prosecute suspects.Terre des Hommes set out to actively tackle webcam child sex tourism by employing a virtual 10-year old Philippine girl named Sweetie, a so-called chatbot, to identify offenders in chatrooms. Sweetie 1.0 could bedeployed only if police officers participated in chats, and thus was limited in dealing with the large number of offenders. With this in mind, a more pro-active and preventive approach was adopted to tackle the issue. Sweetie 2.0 was developed with an automated chat function to track, identify and deter individuals using the internet to sexually abuse children. Using chatbots allows the monitoring of larger parts of the internet to locate and identify (potential) offenders, and to send them messages to warn of the legal consequences should they proceed further.But using artificial intelligence raises serious legal questions. For instance, is sexually interacting with a virtual child actually a criminal offence? How do rules of criminal procedure apply to Sweetie as investigative software? Does using Sweetie 2.0 constitute entrapment? This book, the outcome of a comparative law research initiative by Leiden University’s Center for Law and Digital Technologies(eLaw) and the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT), addresses the application of substantive criminal law and criminal procedure to Sweetie 2.0 within various jurisdictions around the world.This book is especially relevant for legislators and policy-makers, legal practitioners in criminal law, and all lawyers and academics interested in internet-related sexual offences and in Artificial Intelligence and law.Professor Simone van der Hof is General Director of Research at t he Center for Law and Digital Technologies (eLaw) of the Leiden Law School at Leiden University, The Netherlands. Ilina Georgieva, LL.M., is a PhD researcher at the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs at Leiden University, Bart Schermer is an associate professor at the Center for Law and Digital Technologies (eLaw) of the Leiden Law School, and Professor Bert-Jaap Koops is Professor of Regulation and Technology at the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT), Tilburg University, The Netherlands.