Only 20% of known child porn sites heed watchdog's call to shut down

Only 20 percent of some 1,600 known child pornography sites were taken off the Internet in 2007 despite pressure from a Tokyo-based watchdog that monitors the harmful sites, the group said Friday.

As the Internet Hotline Center Japan is not authorized to enforce deletions or issue requests for such action to foreign servers, cross-border exchanges of pornographic images continue.

The center detected 1,609 child porn sites last year, based mainly on tipoffs, and urged the taking down of 526 whose servers are located in Japan. However, only 339 accepted the request.

The center is under the control of the Internet Association of Japan, an incorporated foundation entrusted by the National Police Agency with monitoring harmful Internet sites.

The contents of the detected sites included naked images of children and violent acts against them, and they are believed to have been shot in Japan as well as abroad, it said.

Among the Group of Eight nations, Japan and Russia have no legislation to prohibit possession of child porn.