E/CN.15/2002/8 Sexual Exploitation of Children, held in Yokohama, Japan, from 17 to 20 December 2001, linked possible increases in the exploitation of children and the overall volume of child pornography to that expanded market5 but noted that a number of large-scale Internet child pornography operations, many of them transnational in scope, had been successfully broken up by cooperative law enforcement operations. Papers presented at the World Congress also linked the Internet to other paedophile activities, including child sex tourism and child abduction. 11. Concerns were also expressed about the increase in identity theft, in which personal data are used to allow offenders to impersonate the individual whose data were stolen. Combined with the anonymity of online transactions and other activities, identity thefts were used in connection with a range of crimes ranging from fraud to terrorist activities. Other criminal activities reported included an increasingly wide range of crimes involving fraud, online extortion, moneylaundering and computer-assisted smuggling and crimes against computer systems and their users, involving viruses and other hostile programs and denial-of-service attacks. One new development with respect to fraud was the use of false Internet charities established to attract donations in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 11 September, taking advantage of the fast reaction times possible with the establishment and removal of new web sites. 12. Online activities also created a number of emerging problems for national regulatory enforcement schemes in areas such as taxation, business regulation and the enforcement of environmental standards, where foreign storage of data, the increasing use of encryption and the ability of companies in one country to deal directly with customers in another have made regulatory, inspection and audit requirements more difficult to enforce. One example of this is the use of online pharmacies, which were identified as a problem in the report of the International Narcotics Control Board, 6 as well as by experts of the Customs Cooperation Council (also called the World Customs Organization) and by the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. The concern of the International Narcotics Control Board is primarily with the illicit shipment of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, but other sources suggest that the problem is broader, extending to many medicinal and other drugs that are subject to basic customs controls and medical prescription 4 regimes in various countries. This poses a problem not only for criminal law enforcement, but also for health authorities, customs agencies and other regulatory bodies. B. Developments within the United Nations 13. In its resolution 1999/23 of 28 July 1999, entitled “Work of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme”, the Economic and Social Council requested the Secretary-General, taking into account the activities of the workshop on crimes related to the computer network, held at the Tenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, to conduct a study on effective measures that could be taken at the national and international levels to prevent and control computerrelated crime. The report of the Secretary-General on the conclusions of the study was before the Commission at its tenth session (E/CN.15/2001/4). Several speakers acknowledged the gravity of hightechnology and computer-related crime and emphasized the importance of taking action against such crime at the international level, including in the framework of the United Nations. It was noted that the fight against high-technology and computer-related crime required numerous sophisticated investigative measures and that following a common approach to fighting such crime was of vital importance. 14. The plans of action annexed to General Assembly resolution 56/261 for the implementation of and follow-up to the Vienna Declaration included a plan for action against high-technology and computer-related crime, which called upon the Centre for International Crime Prevention: (a) To support national and international research activities to identify new forms of computerrelated criminality and to assess the effects of such criminality in key areas such as sustainable development, protection of privacy and electronic commerce and the measures taken in response; (b) To disseminate internationally agreed materials such as guidelines, legal and technical manuals, minimum standards, proven practices and model legislation to assist legislators and law enforcement and other authorities in the development,