Kosovo Victims of pornographic videos

February 27, 2009

Comment: The article describes a new and disturbing phenomenon: youth sharing sexually explicit content of each other on the net. According to the article this often happens without the consent of the person shown – which is a form of abuse, or even worse, this type of “abuse” is used as blackmail in relationships. Kosovo authorities seem to be alerted of the problem and are investigating these cases. One specific case is being mentioned in which an arrest has already been made.
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Unfortunately the article assists in further abuse by mentioning the title of the website where most of this material can be found – including a screenshot of the web page (although no explicit content is being shown). While the article does not mention whether the victims are minors – it does point out that such abuse is punishable by law to up to 6 years in prison.

The author of the article consults both NGOs, police and judges, and is clearly trying to raise awareness of the public to this new issue. A new country, having to get used to the flop side of development: information technology can be used for abuse of information as well. While Kosovo is not alone with this problem, for a new country with lots of development issues and more conservative traditions, such an article – this first of this kind – is considered as pioneering in awareness raising.

(This Press review is under the framework of EIDHR funded project , implemented jointly with PVPT Kosovo)