Web servers in the Netherlands are hosting the most, some one-third, of all child sexual abuse material online, according to a recent report by a watchdog that tracks and removes such content.

Last year, the UK-based Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) took action to remove over 255,000 reports of confirmed child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, which refers to visuals depicting the exploitation and sexual abuse of children.

Organizations such as the IWF and others prefer the term CSAM instead of child pornography, as the latter could denote some degree of consent on children’s part.

IWF data shows the EU remains the “global hub” for CSAM, with a staggering 150,419, or 59%, of the reports being about material hosted on computer servers in the EU member states, the highest worldwide.

Among them, the Netherlands was at the top, hosting 32%, or 82,605 URLs.

But why is the EU, and the Netherlands in particular, hosting the highest amount of such material in the world?

Experts explain it is in part because the small European country has web hosting companies and server providers offering services at a low cost.

High-speed internet, developed digital infrastructure, and favorable regulations are additional factors.

“The Netherlands has plenty of fast, cheap hosting infrastructure … so naturally you are going to find content wherever you have good technology and infrastructure for hosting,” Michael Tunks, head of policy and public affairs at IWF, told Anadolu.

Dutch laws, which give a lot of weight to freedom of expression, are not stringent enough to allow authorities to crack down on servers, he said.

“The way that constitutionally and legally the Netherlands is set up has meant that it has become a hotbed for the hosting of child sexual abuse material as well,” said Tunks.

Having the servers in the Netherlands does not mean that the content was generated there, and tracking down the source of the material remains a challenging task, he added.

The Dutch government has acknowledged the issue in the past and taken measures to combat online child sexual abuse, including a strategy focused on removing such content, but the numbers remain damning.

Images of extreme child abuse double

The IWF has recorded a worrying spike in images and videos of the most severe kinds of child sexual abuse.

The content, labeled Category A, can include the rape of children, babies, as well as acts such as bestiality or sadism, the report said.

“That’s the most severe forms of content … (and) we’ve seen that double. We’ve taken about 50,000 reports down of that in the last year,” said Tunks.

The IWF warns that as children become more active online, they are increasingly vulnerable to grooming and abuse by strangers “even in their own bedrooms.”

Rise of self-generated content

Another alarming trend is the rise of self-generated content, defined as sexual abuse images and videos created using mobile phones or webcams and then shared online.

Children can be groomed, deceived, or coerced into producing and sharing a sexual image or video of themselves by someone who is not physically present with them, said the IWF report.

Around 78% percent of the total URLs IWF identified in 2022 had self-generated images.

“Generally, that’s hitting the 11 to 13 age range and we’re seeing that get younger. We’re seeing 7- to 10-year-olds and particularly young girls as well,” said Tunks.

“If you have a child, and they have a smartphone or a device that has a camera in it and is connected to the internet, then any child could be at risk of potentially generating those images.”

Lobbying for laws

Last May, the European Commission proposed a new regulation to tackle online child sexual abuse.

It urged social media platforms, service providers and tech companies to scan, remove and block all content, personal messages or encrypted data with abusive material.

“I think it’s a much-needed piece of legislation and it’s really, really important because companies need to continue scanning, detecting and putting in place measures that better protect children online,” said Tunks.

Activists in the Netherlands are pushing for the government to support the proposal, but like other countries, there is pushback from data watchdogs, tech companies and politicians.

“There’s a lot of resistance within the Netherlands due to privacy issues,” explained Celine Verheijen, project coordinator at Defense for Children-EPACT Netherlands, an NGO focused on children’s rights.

The concerns also include scanning of text, including personal messages, and end-to-end encryption.

Verheijen said they are also advocating for better legislation, for instance, to make websites accountable for hosting material and to take these companies to court.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday promised to introduce a new "civilian" constitution.

"We will work together to bring a civilian constitution to Türkiye," Erdogan said after a Cabinet meeting, which lasted more than eight hours, in the capital Ankara.

"We want to follow our journey in the second century of our republic under the guidance of a civilian, liberal, encompassing constitution that will be embraced by all segments," he stressed, underlying the importance of leaving behind the current constitution shaped by the military junta after the 1980 coup.

Erdogan also hailed the presidential system, saying: "Our nation rejected the proposals to return to the old system with its will in elections on May 14 and May 28. The parliamentary system discussions were closed indefinitely."

Türkiye adopted its executive presidential system of governance in 2017 after a public referendum and put it into practice a year later.

Turkish officials have touted the benefits of the new system, saying it eliminates inefficiencies and enables the smoother working of the administration.

Northern Cyprus, Azerbaijan tour

After his reelection on May 28, Erdogan said he paid his first foreign visits to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and Azerbaijan.

"We will continue our struggle shoulder to shoulder with the Turkish Cypriots, who are an integral part of the Turkish nation. We will never allow the rights of either our country or the TRNC to be usurped," he stressed.

Turning to Azerbaijan, Erdogan said during talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev they took many decisions to improve bilateral relations.

"We have determined a common goal to increase the trade volume to $15 billion," he added.

Erdogan also said that the establishment of the Türkiye-Azerbaijan university was given priority.

"We emphasized our support for the ongoing normalization process with Armenia," he added.

The second round of Turkish presidential elections differs from the first due to differences in the equations that govern it, which include:
1- The ability of each party to hold together its alliances and supporters. While Erdogan and the Justice and Development Alliance proved a greater ability in cohesion by bringing it to a greater percentage than the opposition candidate, which almost brought him to the brink of success, as well as the success of this alliance in obtaining the parliamentary majority, which gives confidence and enthusiasm to work to win the second round. This is unlike the opposition coalition, which was damaged in its broad opposition by having more than one candidate for the presidency (Kilijdaroglu, Sinan, and Muharram İnce), or the six-party table alliance, which failed to obtain the presidency or the majority in Parliament. This can discourage his audience and reduce his enthusiasm for the second round.
2- The Kurdish component, the largest proportion of which came out primarily for the success of the Kurdish list, more than Kilicdaroglu's choice.
However, in the second round, part of this component will fail to go to the elections, because it considers both candidates to be nationalists in its view of the Kurdish problem.
3- The youth bases of the (Muharrem İnce) party and the ancestors’ alliance (Sinan) will not be committed to voting for Kilicdaroglu because they did not adhere to that before and believe that he is not fit for the presidency, and this makes part of the opposition base either not go to vote, or they may vote for President Erdogan.
4- One of the factors is also the ability of the two parties to reach understandings with Muharram İnce and Sinan, to support one of them in the second round, according to interests and issues. The Justice and Development Party and President Erdogan will be more able to implement these understandings due to the presence of the president in the government and the presence of a majority of the Justice and Development Party under the dome of Parliament.

This is an advantage that helps President Erdogan win, God willing.
5- There is an electoral base that constitutes approximately 8 million voters who did not participate in the first round, and this is affected by the most fortunate and realistic in success, and it has noticed the success of the Justice Party in its regions, which encourages it to elect the most experienced, President Erdogan, and the strongest in chances of success, given that it achieved nearly 50 %.
6- Stability factor. This is what the Turkish people need, as having a president who agrees with a parliamentary majority is better than having a president who quarrels with a majority that prevents the passage of budgets and laws, and where the majority is achieved for the Justice Alliance, it is better to choose Erdogan to bring about this stability.
7- Decreased frequency of external interventions. It was exhausted in the first round and did not achieve the necessary achievement of its support for the opposition, and some of them will begin to ease the media campaign for the sake of flexible relations in the next stage.
These are some of the parameters of the second-round equation.
We hope that Allah Almighty will grant President Erdogan success in the runoff.

An estimated 1 in 5 Asian Americans in the US have hidden details about their heritage from people who are not Asian, a new report shows.

Some of the details that Asian Americans choose not to share include ethnic food or clothing as well as cultural and religious practices, the Pew Research Center said in the report released Monday.

“Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand the rich diversity of people of Asian origin or ancestry living in the United States and their views of identity. The study is part of the Center’s multiyear, comprehensive, in-depth quantitative and qualitative research effort focused on the nation’s Asian population,” the report said.

The research was conducted in the wake of a recent rise in attacks against Asian Americans, including during the Covid-19 pandemic amid misinformation and misplaced aggression about the origins of the virus.

Reported hate crimes against Asians in 16 of the nation’s largest cities and counties rose 164% in 2021, according to a study from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State University San Bernardino. And a 2022 report from Pew found about a third of Asian Americans reported changing their daily routine due to concerns of racially motivated violence.

The new survey is based on a sample of 7,006 adults in the US who identify as Asian, either alone or in combination with other races or Hispanic ethnicity. Respondents were interviewed between July 5, 2022, and January 27 of this year.

When asked why they had hidden some aspects of their culture, Asian Americans mentioned a number of reasons from “fear of being embarrassed to wanting to avoid awkward questions or having to explain themselves, and even concern of potential discrimination,” the Pew report said.

Their responses also varied based on their age, ethnicity and place of birth. About 30% of Asians born in the US have hidden their culture, compared with 15% of Asian immigrants, the report shows.

Younger Asian adults were more likely to hide their culture. About 39% of Asians of ages 18 to 29 said they have done it, compared with 5% of Asians who are 65 and older, the report says.

About 25% of Korean adults surveyed said they have hidden part of their heritage from people who are not Asian, while 20% of Indian adults, 19% of Chinese, 18% of Vietnamese, 16% of Filipino and 14% of Japanese adults said they have done the same.

The survey includes several findings that highlight the diversity among Asian identity in the US.

About half of respondents said they often describe themselves by ethnic labels, such as Filipino, Korean or Chinese, which reflect their family origins, the report says.

Respondents indicated their friendships vary depending on where they were born. Overall, half of Asian Americans said all or most of their friends in the US are Asian but only 38% of those who were born in the US said the same.

An elderly Australian went to a mosque to complain about ‘loud noises’ during prayers. However, he converted back to Islam after conversing with the Muslims present in the mosque.

The heartwarming incident was captured on footage and showed the man declaring his new faith in English and Arabic before breaking down in tears.

Haj Hussain Goss, an active Muslim preacher in Australia, shared the clip on his Facebook account, writing: “Welcome to Islam our brother on this day of Eid. This brother came this morning for Eid to complain about the noise and went home as a Muslim. Allah is great.”

Hassan said at the beginning of the clip that an old man named Brian, who lived in a nursing home near the Gold Coast mosque, came to him complaining about the loud sound of Eid prayers that blasted over the speakers. Hassan then sat with Brian for 10 to 15 minutes, during which he talked to him.

Brian became convinced of the faith after an encounter with the preacher, making a voluntary decision to convert to Islam. (Agencies)