The Right to Privacy for Children on the Internet: New Developments in the Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights
In recent years, the European Court of Human Rights has published an increasing number of decisions on the right to privacy for children online. In its case law, the Court addresses the vulnerable position of minors in a digital environment. The aim of this chapter is two fold. First, it seeks to analyse recent case law of the European Court of Human Rights on the right to respect for private life (Article 8 ECHR) for children on the Internet. Second, it aims to investigate and critically discuss whether the characteristics of online modes of communications have sufficiently been taken into account by the European Court in its case law on the right to privacy for children.
Blocking child pornography on the Internet: European Union developments
Internet blocking has become increasingly common within Europe as a tool to attempt to prevent the distribution of child pornography. However, until 2006, blocking systems largely developed independently at a national level. Although there have been European measures against child pornography since 1996 these measures have previously focused on other responses such as the approximation of national laws and the development of hotlines to report illegal content. This, however, is now changing and European Union (EU) policy is moving towards greater use of blocking. For example, the Safer Internet Plus Programme has funded the CIRCAMP (‘Cospol Internet Related Child Abusive Material Project’) police network to promote blocking and the sharing of national blocklists and the European Commission has proposed legislation which would require all member states to introduce blocking systems. This article outlines these developments and assesses the implications that they may have for freedom of expression online.
The MR-TOF-MS isobar separator for the TITAN facility at TRIUMF
At TRIUMF’s Ion Trap for Atomic and Nuclear Science (TITAN) a multiple-reflection time-of-flight mass spectrometer (MR-TOF-MS) will extend TITAN’s capabilities and facilitate mass measurements and in-trap decay spectroscopy of exotic nuclei that so far have not been possible due to strong isobaric contamination. This MR-TOF-MS will also enable mass measurements of very short-lived nuclides (half-life > 1 ms) that are produced in very low quantities (a few detected ions overall). In order to allow the installation of an MR-TOF-MS in the restricted space on the platform, on which the TITAN facility is located, novel mass spectrometric methods have been developed. Transport, cooling and distribution of the ions inside the device is done using a buffer gas-filled RFQ-based ion beam switchyard. Mass selection is achieved using a dynamic retrapping technique after time-of-flight analysis in an electrostatic isochronous reflector system. Only due to the combination of these novel methods the realization of an MR-TOF-MS based isobar separator at TITAN has become possible. The device has been built, commissioned off-line and is currently under installation at TITAN.