Fewer cases of child porn reported

Child pornography made up 90 per cent of the hardcore porn cases reported last year to the Swiss Coordination Unit for Cybercrime Control.

Although the 1,206 reports of violations of the hardcore pornography law were down on 2010 figures, the unit, which is part of the Federal Police Office (Fedpol), said it couldn’t rule out that such content and crime was actually declining online.

The authorities define hardcore pornography as “sexual acts with children, animals, human excrement or acts of violence”.

Fedpol said the lower figure was largely a result of child pornography becoming increasingly less visible – paedophiles are retreating into closed or hard-to-access platforms such as forums, groups or social networks. This, it said, enabled them to exchange child porn discreetly and anonymously.

In 2011, the cybercrime unit opened 225 dossiers on suspects, of which 223 were forwarded to cantonal prosecutors. Two fell under foreign jurisdiction and were forwarded to the responsible authorities.

A total of 214 people were identified who were active in exchanging child porn on peer-to-peer networks. In 16 cases, officers from the unit posed as paedophiles in chatrooms to gather information on suspects.