ITU wants spam dead within two years

Delegates at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) spam conference have called for standardised, tougher worldwide anti-spam legislation, which they believe could stamp out junk email within the next two years.

The ITU has brought together regulators from 60 countries and a number of international organisations, including the World Trade Organisation and the Council of Europe, in Geneva this week to discuss the problem.

"[We have] an epidemic on our hands that we need to learn how to control. International co-operation is the ultimate goal," said Robert Horton, acting chief of the Australian Communications Authority, and chairman of the meeting, according to Associated Press.

Delegates at the conference were told that the spiralling costs of dealing with spam, which already total an estimated $25bn a year, could force people off the internet.

The ITU claimed that as much as 85 per cent of email could be considered spam, and that the top priority is to stamp out pornographic material that could be accessed by children.

But many countries have no anti-spamming laws in place, making it difficult to track down and prosecute the perpetrators.

The ITU is to put forward examples of anti-spam legislation that countries could adopt to facilitate easier cross-border co-operation.

See also:

UK to lead anti-spam and scam drive

Britain will spearhead co-ordinated worldwide sweep for web fraudsters  06 Aug 2004

Nearly two-thirds of all emails now spam

Firm warns of lasting damage to internet business as spam rates continue to rise  28 Jul 2004

Barracuda takes to distribution waters

Anti-spam vendor signs Risc and Wick Hill as it looks to expand  19 Jul 2004

Spammers face tri-nation crackdown

UK, US and Australia join forces to investigate and prosecute spammers  02 Jul 2004

Will ISPs turn tide of spam?

Pressure is growing on ISPs to do more to stop spam  01 Jul 2004

Common anti-spam standard ready soon

Industry likely to agree on IP-based sender authentication scheme  25 Jun 2004

ITU talks aim to kill off 'spam plague'

World's telco giants discuss plans to combat unsolicited email  13 Jun 2004

Junk mail

The term 'spam' may have been popularised by a Monty Python sketch but, in the electronic world, junk mail is far from a laughing matter.  06 Jun 2003

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