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The Banks’ Campaign to Crush Child Pornography on the Internet or B3CPI was launched on Monday at an event held at the Cinnamon Grand, Oak Room. It was attended by Mr. Ajith Nivard Cabraal Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and over 16 CEO that have pledged themselves to eradicate the problem of child pornography through concerted, cross industry action to cut off the funding of these websites. It was the first time that such a number of banks have come together to fight a cause such as this in Sri Lanka.

The event was scheduled to coincide with Universal Children’s Day.

In response to the alarming increase in the numbers of children appearing in pornographic images every day and the ages of the children involved getting younger, the need for immediate and action with regards to creating awareness on the issue and deterring the financial network that supports these websites is critical.

Sri Lanka continues to be a major source of children who appear in these web sites. Maureen Seneviratne, Chairperson of P.E.A.C.E (Protecting Environment and Children Everywhere), who has been working in this area for over 10 years, informs us that this initiative is welcome support from the business sector to an issue that has long been overlooked. “"It is now a very well-known fact that child abusers, whether local persons or persons from foreign countries no longer need much facilitation from arrival to departure point or in their search to meet and buy children for their perverted forms of sexual gratification.

All they have to do is to download from any of the innumerable websites on which children from Third World Tourist receiving destinations are sold. These websites are also used for depicting gross child abuse in the most shocking type of child pornography.

Here in Sri Lanka all we can do to cope with this form of criminal exploitation of vulnerable children is to make people aware about the new threats and the new dangers,”.

In 2006, a Financial Coalition against Child Pornography was created by ICMEC (International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children) and NCMEC (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children) with a goal of eradicating commercial child pornography by 2008, tracing the money and preventing payments.

Participants in the coalition include 29 of the world’s leading international financial and Internet companies who, in an unprecedented move, have pledged to work together to shut down these Internet websites.

Members of the Coalition include America Online, American Express, Bank of America, Chase Bank, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Google, HSBC, MasterCard, Microsoft, Standard Chartered Bank, Visa, and Yahoo, among others.

Banks’ Campaign to Crush Child Pornography on the Internet (B3CPI) was formed in early 2007 with the participation of all major Banks in Sri Lanka, the Sri Lanka Banks' Association and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. B3CPI together with the Cards Industry Task Force (CITF) formulated mechanisms to avoid the offending merchants / cardholders from using the Cards Systems to access child pornography on the internet.

Upali De Silva, Secretary General of the Sri Lanka Banks’ Association said, “The Association which represents all Commercial Banks in Sri Lanka, had no hesitation in extending its support to this vital programme to eliminate the abuse of the worst kind, of our children, specially considering the contribution the banks could make towards identifying and shutting off the flow of funds to commercial sources of child pornography, through credit card transactions, which seem to make up the bulk of the business of child pornography.”

In support of this initiative the Central Bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has, issued a circular to all commercial banks drawing attention to clause 33 of the Financial Transactions Reporting Act (FTRA) No.6 of 2006 which lists offences against children as an unlawful activity in terms of the law.

The B3CPI process that will be launched in each of the Banks card centers with immediate effect will track any payments made to suspicious websites and identify and flag these merchants.

The banks will then take independent action to terminate their relationship with such merchants as well as flag their names with international organizations such as MasterCard and Visa. The banks’ coalition will also launch a customer hotline - 2480500 through which customers can call in and report any suspicious websites or find out more about this issue.

The Coalition’s logo was also launched on the day, along with a literature and media tools that would be useful to each of the Banks currently involved in implementing this process. A children’s choir that performed at the event, presented each of the CEOs with a token gift as a representation of the Banks responsibility to safeguard their innocence and future.

Clive Haswell, CEO Standard Chartered Bank, speaking on behalf of B3CPI said, “The Banks’ Campaign to Crush Child Pornography on the Internet is an industry-led initiative launched in 56 countries worldwide. I have been delighted with the strong support we have received from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the banking industry at large to Standard Chartered Bank’s proposal to take up this issue here.

We have begun to make significant progress towards fighting this deadly crime by preventing Internet child pornography merchants from using financial payment systems in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka can be proud of the fact that it is one of the first countries in which the banking community has taken a pro-active stance with all parties consciously working together.”

The following banks have pledged their commitment to this campaign: Bank of Ceylon,

Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Commercial Bank LTD, Deutsche Bank, DFCC Bank, Hatton National Bank, HSBC, Indian Overseas Bank, National Savings Bank, Nations Trust Bank, PABC Bank, Peoples Bank, Sampath Bank Ltd, Seylan Cards Centre, Standard Chartered Bank and Union Bank of Colombo.