Pablo Duchement, professor and computer court expert specializing in cases involving minors and social networks, has posted on Twitter an interesting request made by the CNMC (National Markets and Competition Commission) to Internet service providers, as a result of a ruling by a criminal court:
In my TL, we are going to debate a lot, A LOT, BUT A LOT, about this requirement that has reached all operators registered in the Registry of Operators of the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) as “Internet service providers”. pic.twitter.com/1sBeZhRLqS
– P. Duchement? (@PDuchement) February 16, 2022
As a result of a judicial proceeding against an individual whose identity has not been revealed, and who, according to what is dropped in the Twitter thread, could be related to online sexual harassment of minors, the judge —after declaring the defendant guilty — also resolved at the beginning of last December to order Internet providers to take the necessary measures to “cancel” —for two years— “accounts on social networks with the presence of minors, such as Facebook and/or applications that have“.
In this way, the access providers are held responsible for taking the appropriate measures (which it does not detail or identify, so they could be different with each company) to prevent this individual from accessing to social networks with minors.
Letting your minor child use TikTok can be negligence in his custody, according to a sentence in Spain
A historic measure, but of doubtful effectiveness
A user with knowledge of technology will realize that the order given by the judge is not feasible (Movistar, Vodafone and company cannot “cancel accounts on social networks”, at most put obstacles to access to them) and that also has potential interpretation problems…
…Does an online forum or a Telegram group count as social networks? And the chat of an online video game? As one of the users who has responded to the thread says, “I’m not an IT expert but I see that any criminal who watches some Antena3 movies, for example, finds a way of skipping those measures”.
The author of the thread warns at this point:
“I know that every measure has a countermeasure and a way to circumvent it (sometimes, even very easily), but let’s not fall into the mistake of believing that everyone knows them. Do not mention them […] that in the end we give ideas to whom I wish I never had.”
“Let’s not forget that this is an extra, that Your Honor has applied the appropriate criminal measures”. In any case, for Duchement, this measure marks “a milestone (I will not clarify whether it is good or bad, lucky or wrong, sufficient or disappointing, technological or legal) in the fight against cyber insecurity”.