True to its commitment to social responsibility – particularly with respect to children – the multinational IT security company has sponsored a campaign undertaken by ANESVAD against child pornography on the Internet.
Internet users judged legal impunity of paedophiles and pimps to be the primary cause of the boom in child pornography on the Internet. According to voters, the dark side of the web, society and international legislation were not considered to be the greatest underlying factors. The majority of votes were for poverty (22.31%), irresponsible use of the Internet (24.77%) and legal impunity, which 52.92% of the voters named as the cause of this phenomenon.
For each SMS sent to the opinion forum of this campaign, Panda Software makes a donation to a children's project in Thailand. The money will be used to offer scholarships to students at risk of sexual exploitation and children orphaned by AIDS. The scholarships will be granted in provinces of north and northeast Thailand, and each one will cover school fees, educational materials, transportation and clothing.
According to the data from ANESVAD, there are over 4,000,000 Internet web pages containing child pornography and 500 new sites are created daily. In total, these sites receive more than two thousand million visits per year. The victims of this clandestine industry are used as objects to make sexually explicit material, an experience that leaves them marked for life. In the years following the aggression, 60 to 80% of the victims show signs of emotional scars and between 17 and 40% suffer severe clinical pathologies.
The cooperation between Panda Software and ANESVAD is part of the social action program to promote the company's goal of making the world a better place through support of the most vulnerable groups, such as children. In pursuing its policy of social responsibility, the Spanish multinational participates in a variety of educational and child-protection related projects.
ANESVAD is a non-profit NGO that has worked in underdeveloped countries since 1968. Its foremost challenges are the fight against leprosy, Buruli ulcer and sexual exploitation of minors. The organization is now present in 28 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
In 2000 ANESVAD undertook the battle against child pornography on the Internet, and since then has launched various awareness campaigns.
For more information:
ANESVAD Web Site:
http://www.anesvad.org